Its fin keel, spade rudder and light weight was fodder for critics when the first Cal 40 was launched in 1963. Skeptics questioned the boat's ability to stand up to the rigors of the open ocean and predicted disaster for a boat that challenged virtually every accepted principle of sailboat design.

Within two years of its inaugural launch at Jensen marine Corp., the Cal 40 set off a revolution in the sailing community, Designer C. William Lapworth and builder Jack Jensen had succeeded in creating what is considered the single most successful stock boat in the history of ocean racing.

With its clean, canoe-shaped hull and fin underwater appendages, the Cal 40 defied the constraints of hull speed. Its detached rudder controlled the boat surfing down Pacific Ocean rollers at sustained speeds of 15 knots, and according o the crew of one TransPac Competitor, a top speed of 25 knots.

Lapworth also proved that to be seaworthy a boat did not need to be particularly heavy - a heretical concept at the time that helped the 15,000-pound Cal 40 dominate such downwind marathons as the TransPac. With her speed and handling prove, skeptics waited for the Cal 40 to break under the forces of the waves it loved to ride. The boat, however, proved as strong as any in the rough going of the worldís oceans.

To this day, there are more than 30 Cal 40s racing out of southern California and an active cruising fleet in the Pacific Northwest. The lasting popularity of the boat is of little surprise. Cal 40 concepts such as a spade rudder, fin keel and pure hull form sparked a new generation of fast, easily sailed boats and continues to influence sailboat design today.