Sloop Should Break N.Y.-S.F. Sailing Mark : Thursday’s Child Hasn’t Far to Go for Record

Thursday’s Child, a sloop on schedule to smash the 135-year New York-San Francisco sailing record, did not have far to go as it entered waters off Southern California today.

The modern three-man, 60-foot racing yacht was seeking to beat the record of 89 days and eight hours for the 14,500-mile journey around treacherous Cape Horn at the tip of South America. Set in 1854 by the legendary three-masted clipper ship Flying Cloud, it is the oldest existing speed record.

Thursday’s Child was expected to reach the latitude of San Diego early today and was on target to enter San Francisco’s Golden Gate on Friday, “or Saturday morning at the latest,” spokesman Tony Lush said after a radio conference with the crew.

The vessel left New York on Nov. 23 and must reach San Francisco by 2 a.m., Feb. 21, to break the record. A Friday arrival would break it by 10 days.

The race is against what was called “the liveliest creation of man,” a clipper ship praised in its day as a thing “of satisfying beauty . . . absolutely fitted for the purpose it is designed to fill.”

The 225-foot Flying Cloud required 100 men to hoist its 35 sails. Thursday’s Child is 165 feet shorter and has only two sails, but it boasts the latest in push-button satellite navigation equipment.