Isobar

Spanning more than half a century, the story of Isobar encompasses nearly 30 countries and many, many dozens of crew, but only 4 owners. Along the way there were also several romances, a marriage, a honeymoon, domestic and international racing, global cruising with wandering yachties, encounters with foreign navies, 3 refits, 2 engines, 1 rescue at sea and countless adventures and stories.

In July of 1961, a pair of brothers and avid sailors from the San Francisco Bay Area found themselves in the middle of their first TransPac sailing race from San Pedro California to Honolulu Hawaii. Sailing the 2,225 nautical mile course aboard the 39’ yawl Tyboon (which they had built themselves in the backyard of their Orinda home), Don and Les Harlander were gradually becoming aware of two things: Their next boat would be a simpler and more efficient sloop rig, and deriving from a meteorological term they were seeing on the daily weather maps, her name would be “Isobar”.

Built in 1962 at the renowned Cheoy Lee Shipyard in Hong Kong, Isobar is a 45’ LOA full-keel sloop with a 12’ maximum beam and a 28,000 lb. displacement. Her original design was a monocoque wineglass hull of strip-planked Philippine mahogany, spacious teak decks and a counter stern. She sports a low aspect mainsail rig (48’ deck-stepped mast with a 22’ spar) built for the largely downwind run of the TransPac. While she is a custom design lofted by Les (a naval architect by trade), her lines take inspiration from the big Sparkman & Stevens designs — most noticeably the 52’ yawl Dorade. As a mechanical engineer, Don designed the fittings and systems.