In 2016 he navigated the 100-footer Comanche to a course record of 34 hours and 42 minutes. For Sally, it’ll be her third race to Bermuda, following on from 19 for Stan, his seventh race. While the memories were flowing freely of past achievements, the Honeys are also squarely focused on the next race, their last race on Illusion-the Newport Bermuda Race. That and the singlehanded race would be my highlights.” We beat the next Cal 40 by something like half a day. “The boat was perfectly prepared and it was a great year for the race. “The 2003 TransPac with Skip Allan and John Andron was just a hoot,” says Stan. He also enjoyed pulling a similar horizon job in the 2003 crewed TransPac with Sally. Stan recalls crushing the fleet in the 1994 Singlehanded TransPacific Race (San Francisco to Kauai), where he set a course record of 11 days and 10 hours, an elapsed time that is also faster than all Cal 40 efforts in the crewed TransPac Race (a longer course). That was fun from the opposite side of 1990, when we were barely ready.” We sailed really hard in that race I think we jibed 15 times one night. “The ’96 double-handed race also was very memorable. “I spent the week before the race building four new spinnakers for the boat. It was the first time I’d ever been alone on watch in the middle of the night with an autopilot steering,” says Sally, a former sailmaker. But, you’re not ready!’”ĭespite the inspector’s trepidation, Stan and Sally assured him they were ready and then went out and placed second in class in their first double-handed offshore race. You’ve passed the inspection you got a check in every box. So, at the end of the inspection, the guy says, ‘Well, I need some advice. You could twist them together and turn on running lights or anything you needed, but it wasn’t finished yet. There were a bunch of wires sticking out. “We’d raced a lot and had everything ready for inspection, but we were rewiring the boat and the electrical system wasn’t finished. “So, the safety inspector comes down to boat,” recalls Stan. Stan and Sally Honey’s Illusion, surfing in the Pacific (Latitude 38 photo) It was just the fourth time they sailed the boat together, and the inspection officer wasn’t convinced they were ready. They both recounted, laughing, the preparation for their first double-handed race, the 1990 West Marine Pacific Cup, from San Francisco to Kaneohe, Hawaii. But somehow, we couldn’t stop racing,” says Sally. “We bought Illusion as a cruising boat because we’d been racing 505s for 20 years. They progressed to Illusion because the “five-oh” was becoming a bit more physical than was needed. The Honeys bought Illusion in 1988 after some 20 years of winning championships in the high-performance 505 dinghy. Mosbacher and Monte-Sano raced Illusion in its first Bermuda Race in 1966, placing second in class and overall to another Cal 40, Thunderbird.
That honor belongs to America’s Cup-winning skipper Bus Mosbacher and legendary Long Island Sound racer Vincent Monte-Sano.
The Honeys aren’t the first owners of Illusion. Imagining Illusion without Sally or Stan aboard is a bit like imagining vanilla ice cream without chocolate sauce. “We’ve sold the boat to my nephew, John Vrolyk,” says Stan, the global record-setting navigator who needs no introduction. What?! The Honeys, one of sailing’s most beloved and revered couples, who anyone would jump at the chance to race with, who came together racing 505s first against and then with each other, who have pushed and prodded each other across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii many, many times, are retiring to powerboating? Say it ain’t so! “We’re buying a powerboat… transitioning to the dark side.” “Basically, we’re looking forward to our last hurrah racing,” says she, who has co-owned the record-setting Cal 40 with Stan for 34 years. The safety inspection has occurred.Īnd then Sally, the two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, drops the mic. The boat has been stripped of its cruising amenities: the dining table and floorboards are removed, the heavy anchor and chain are gone, and the heater has been disconnected and removed. One week to go before the start, Stan and Sally Honey aboard Illusion in Portsmouth, R.I. The crew is set: 1984 Olympic Gold medalist Carl Buchan (Seattle, Wash.), fellow Cal 40 owner Don Jesberg (Belvedere, Calif.) and the redoubtable Jonathan Livingston (Richmond, Calif.) are all experienced and legendary West Coast sailors in their own right. The Honeys, from Palo Alto, Calif., are well advanced in their preps. The ocean-racing couple, who’ve racked up many victories racing from California to Hawaii, is preparing for the 52nd Newport Bermuda Race, some 11 days away. NEWPORT, RI (June 9, 2022)-Speaking with Sally and Stan Honey in the cabin of their Cal 40 Illusion, the conversation is as easy and breezy as the gorgeous day topsides in Portsmouth, R.I.
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