The performance oriented sailboats built by Cal Yachts truly embody the golden age of California sailing history. Founded by Jack Jensen in Costa Mesa in 1956, Cal Yachts was a pioneer in all-fiberglass boat building. With this new type of construction, Cal’s oceangoing yachts were fast. They were also among the first ocean-going sailboats affordable to middle-class buyers. Jensen’s secret to keeping costs down was his open air construction method. He built what were called “backyard boats” outside, in an open field under the perfect Southern California sun.

Cal Yachts produced nearly 18, 000 sailboats over the course of more than twenty years and many of the existing fleet remain active in racing and cruising today. The company’s most renowned model is the Cal 40, a comfortable, ultra-light racer. The sailboat was first conceived by legendary ocean racer George Griffith who sketched his dream boat on the back of a cocktail napkin in 1962. A year later the Cal 40 was brought to life by the celebrated sailboat designer Bill Lapworth.

The Cal 40 is a flat bottomed racing machine, fin keeled with a spade rudder hull. When it was first produced, most considered it crazy to go offshore in a boat that did not have a rudder fastened to the keel. But Lapworth’s design proved to be solid, safe, and, most important, fast. The Cal 40, Psyche won the first overall in the 1965 Transpac from Los Angeles to Honolulu. The boats have continued to rack up an amazing string of ocean racing victories since that time. Although they had been out of production for more than two decades, fourteen Cal 40s were entered in the 2005 Transpac, more than any other production sailboat in the race’s 100-year history.