 Robert Hood and J. Seward Johnson sailed the yacht as far north as Nachvak, Labrador and in 1928 entered "Zodiac" in a race from New York to Spain with the yacht finishing fourth among the large yachts.The San Francisco Bar Pilots Association bought the schooner in 1931 on the Atlantic Coast and brought the vessel to San Francisco for modification and operation as the pilot vessel "California" bearing the name of an earlier vessel of the Association.The vessel was the largest schooner operated by the San Francisco Bar Pilots who operated her in peacetime and through wars until 1972 as the last sailing vessel in the United States to serve as a pilot vessel.