Stories and History

 When Tonina was owned by Randy Fault (1973-1976), Tonina served as the Tranpac committee boat and escort vessel for the  Trasnpac. During the brief time she was owned by Mr. Fault, she was named "KUALII". Making trips back and forth to Hawaii. She spent much time in Honolulu.  

An excerpt from the 1973 Transpac Program, "Owned by Randy Fault, Kualii (Tonina) is one of Art DeFever's best designs, built in Santa Barbara by Lindwall. It is 58' overall and has a range of 6,000 miles." 

Her Radio Call Letters were: WQ4464.

 Hawaii isn't the only tropical island Tonina has ventured to.  Tonina spent several years cruising the South Pacific residing in Bora Bora and Papeete for some time. It was during her stay in the Tropics that the stack was modified to have the signature 45 degree bend; it helped to keep the rain out as well as place the exhaust above ones head when walking around the top deck. 

Tonina found herself at one point grounded on a coral head while entering into one of the many atolls in the region. GPS was of course not yet invented and sounders were not very accurate. A pilot was aboard but even their knowledge of every rocks' whereabouts was limited. Tonina was stuck hard and at the recommendation of the pilot, was to remain in place until help could arrive. Tonina's owner at the time decided waiting was not worth the risk and managed to get her off of the reef. She was hauled locally for repairs and luckily due to her stout design, the damage wasn't life threatening and she was back in the water in no time. 

Around 10PM with Rich Fricke and Joe Weber sleeping in the salon, Rick Fricke hollerd up through the stairwell, ""did you feel that? It felt like we bumped the bottom!". "No, no, you're tired and imagining things, the sounder claimed we had 30ft+ of water under us, go back to sleep" was Rich and Joe's response. A couple of minutes went by and the crew dozed... BUMP! Jarred awake by the odd sensation, "I felt that!" yelled Rich. At once, the crew was alert, lights and electronics were turned on and the main was fired off. "how could that be, the sounder said we had plenty of water!" The sounder was warmed up and as the digits on the screen appeared, they jumped from 30' to 60' to 0'. Equipment failure! A lead line was tossed over the side to confirm that we were bouncing off the bottom as the long, low swell came into the bay.

There was no time to lose. The anchor was hauled immediately. As the chain started coming home someone yell "what is that!?" Sea grass and a lot of it! The chain was coming in with so much grass tangled around it that you couldn't see the chain. After having hauled in 50' of scope, the grass was tangled around the chain the diameter of a mans thigh. It was packing in so tight against the hawse pipe that it was now preventing the windlass from being able to pull in any more scope, it had actually created a wedge; a plug. The brake was released and as the chain was shoved out,  knives were strapped to the boathook. As the crew hacked at the grass at the windlass and at the waterline;  foot by precious foot the chain came home. Slow too slow. The tide was still falling and Tonina was bumping the seafloor at an alarming rate. The wind was still blowing around 20 knots, the situation was becoming hectic.

After 20-30 minutes, the 150' of scope that was initially laid had been retrieved along with a ball of grass the size of a pool table (the crew knew the anchor was in there somewhere). Finally Tonina could move to deeper water, or so the crew thought. Tonina was put into gear, nothing. Rich looked out the port wheelhouse door at the Caterpillar raw water through hull, pouring into the same spot (no sign of making headway). Rick gave her more throttle, nothing. As the long swell came into the bay and the water fell, Tonina laid over on her keel to her starboard, clearly planted in the mud. As the swell marched onward, she righted and full RPM's were given to the main. Rich intently watched the bubbles for sign of movement, nothing. Several more swells, lave over, wait, lay over, wait. More throttle! Finally, almost imperceptibly, a trail in the bubbles. "We're moving!" yelled Rich. Momentum was gained and Tonina felt her way out to deeper water. Cutting away more of the seagrass, the crew dropped the anchor. Exhausted, everyone went to bed that night on edge and uneasy from the experience. Tonina's design was able to cope with the grounding without damage to her structure or running gear.

The year was 2003 and the Fricke Family was battling a five day slog uphill along the coast of Baja California and a gale. After a restless night at the North end of Cedros Island, rolling in the trough in 40 knot sustained winds, Rick decided it was time to continue the push Northward. The anchor was hauled around 3AM and the journey continued into the Tempest. 

As Tonina was rounding the North end of the island in the pitch black of night and taking green water over the bow, the view forward out the windows suddenly changed. The crew stared upward at an angle that shouldn't be possible from their vantage point in the wheelhouse, that high above the water line. Rich Fricke, Joe Weber and Rick Fricke were dumbfounded as the stars were blotted out by a wall of black that suddenly turned white at the peak.  The throttle was pulled back and as Tonina continued to rise up to the peak of the wave, Rick yelled to the crew, "get down!" As the crew braced themselves behind the console preparing for the monster to come crashing through the wheelhouse windows, Tonina did the seemingly impossible, she rose, light as a feather to meet the top of the wave and simply fell off the backside of the crest into a hole that swallowed her entirely without barely taking a gallon of water over her cap rail. 

The loss of gravity inside was deafening as everything in every cupboard and drawer slammed into the top of its container then came crashing back down as Tonina landed in the trough of the wave. At first the crew was in disbelief that everything seemed unharmed as we lulled  0 knots in a sea of white foam with the engine still in gear; all way had been lost. The propeller bit and we gained momentum again to continue the treacherous march Northward. 

Tonina was inspected following the encounter with the rouge wave and other than a bump on Mitchell Fricke's head who was asleep in his bunk in the forward stateroom (having having hit the ceiling during the drop only to come crashing back down into his bunk), the boat was unharmed. 

There were other large waves of this particular trip but the rogue wave outside Cedros Island that night will forever live in the minds of the crew that experienced it.