THE POLYNESIAN CONCEPT

In the summer of '68 Beverly Hillbilly and sailing aficionado Buddy Ebsen skippered his diminutive 35-foot catamaran, the Polynesian Concept (fondly, Polycon), in the third biennial Multihull Transpacific Yacht Race from L.A. to Honolulu, ""one of the world's toughest ocean races."" At the outset Ebsen worries, ""Could I do it? Could I sail this tiny bundle of sticks to victory against such odds? Me, an actor?"" Indeed he could and did, beating seven other entries on corrected time. Along the way Ebsen logs about 2500 miles, a few aphorisms (""every man lights off the fires of his own hell""), two mia tais a day (what else?), occasional challenges to his ""command"" position by an expert crew (up or down the spinnaker?) as well as retrospects on the building and launching of the little ""cat,"" but oddly there is a dearth of giggles: ""The things that people find to laugh at on a small yacht which has been en route for five or six days with seven people aboard might not produce laughter anywhere else."" Breezy, not gusty.