Newport Harbor Nautical Museum

A Brief History of the Transpacific Yacht Race


photo: Geri Conser

The Transpacific Yacht Race launches its second century as the longest of the two oldest ocean races in the world. That was the year of the great San Francisco earthquake, which literally altered the course of the former event.

The idea for the race came from Clarence MacFarlane of Honolulu, who invited several sailors in San Francisco and Los Angeles to race to the Hawaiian Islands. The race was scheduled to start in the early summer of 1906, but when MacFarlane sailed his 48-foot schooner into San Francisco Bay he realized there would have to be a change of plans. The city lay in ruins following the earthquake 27 days earlier.

But MacFarlane wasn't easily discouraged. He simply changed the starting point to Los Angeles, and except for one nostalgic return to San Francisco for the start in 1939, the race has started from the Los Angeles area ever since. In recent years the line has been set off the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula near San Pedro, an area of rolling hills and expensive homes. The finish is off the Diamond Head lighthouse just east of Honolulu, establishing a distance of 2,225 nautical miles.

The 2007 race will be the 44th Transpac. The race is run biennially in odd-numbered years, alternating with the Newport-to-Bermuda race that also started in 1906.

The fastest in the fleet have traditionally competed for the Transpacific Yacht Club Perpetual Trophy, which is better known as the "Barn Door" for its unique size. It is a 3 1/2 x 4-foot plaque of hand-carved Hawaiian koa wood bearing the words "FIRST TO FINISH," which isn't necessarily so anymore. Since 1991 the starts have been staggered. The slower boats start a few days ahead of the faster boats in order to compress the finishes and facilitate celebrations in Hawaii.

Smaller boats unable to match the largest ones in sheer speed compete for a prize more relevant to crew performance: the King Kalakaua Trophy for the best corrected handicap time. Each boat's speed potential is calculated from a rating system based on time and distance, rewarding the crew that sailed its boat nearest to its potential, regardless of size.

Transpac stands apart from other major ocean races as essentially a "downwind race," as determined by normal weather patterns in the eastern Pacific north of the equator. After two or three days of slogging on the wind, the fleet encounters the "Pacific High," a mammoth, ever-shifting region of high pressure (and thus light winds) rotating clockwise between Hawaii and the West Coast of North America. As boats reach the lower edge of the high the wind bends aft and turns warm. Spinnakers go up, shirts come off, and sailors traditionally enjoy a pleasant ride the rest of the way.

Oddly, it wasn't until the second half-century of the race following World War II that competitors figured out this phenomenon and used it to advantage in charting their courses and optimizing their boats for downwind performance. The rhumb (direct) line is not always the favored course if it requires sailing through the lower part of the Pacific High, creating a navigational challenge. The smart call often has been to sail a longer course looping farther south into stronger breeze---but not so far as to experience diminishing returns.

Later, that strategy led to the evolution of lightweight boats that have dominated the race since the 80s: first, ULDB 70 "sleds," so-called for their "downhill" performance, and then the maxZ86s and other long, skinny and ultralight speed burners that led a record assault in 2005.

The current monohull record holder is Morning Glory, a Reichel/Pugh-designed maxZ86 owned by industrial software magnate Hasso Plattner of Germany. His boat led the way in 2005 with an elapsed time of 6 days 19 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds, knocking 19 1/2 hours off the record set by the third of Roy E. Disney's Pyewackets in 1999. The former vice chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Co. (he is Walt's nephew and son of company co-founder Roy Disney) was only 2 1/2 hours behind on his fourth Pyewacket, also a R/P maxZ86, in his 15th and final Transpac over 30 years. At 75, he planned to leave racing and go cruising with his wife Patty.

Disney's age that year matched the number of entries, the second highest next to 80 in 1979.

Since allowing multihulls to compete, the fastest elapsed time would not necessarily be by a monohull. Steve Fossett's 60-foot trimaran Lakota raced the course in 6 days 16 hours 7 minutes 16 seconds in 1995, well under the monohull record at the time of 8:11:01:45 by the ultralight displacement "sled" Merlin that stood for 20 years. Then in 1997 Bruno Peyron's 86-foot catamaran Explorer smashed Fossett's record with a time of 5 days 9 hours 18 minutes 26 seconds.

Therefore, because it is possible that a slower boat could start earlier and finish first, as some have, or that a multihull would be faster, the Barn Door is designated for the monohull with the fastest elapsed time.

The largest boat ever to race the Transpac was the 161-foot Goodwill, whose best time was 10 1/2 days in 1959. The smallest boat was the 25-foot B-25 named Vapor, sailed doublehanded by Bill Boyd and Scott Atwood of Long Beach in 1999. Size is now artificially restricted by imposing "speed limit" ratings on all entries through evaluation of potential performance.

Along with the boats, the face of the race itself is evolving with modern times. There have been all-woman crews, as well as in 1997 a crew composed entirely of men with HIV and AIDS who carried a message of hope on the horizon for a cure for the disease. In 2003 and 2005 there was a team of disabled sailors representing Challenged America of San Diego, sailing a Tripp 40 called B'Quest. Doublehanded crews have been recognized since 1995, and 2005 saw a record of seven doublehanded entries, including the first all-woman duo, Patricia Garfield and Diane Murray, and the first coed team, James and Ann Read, with their dog Sweetie Pie. The Reads, who were in no hurry, logged the slowest race time ever from Los Angeles to Honolulu, 22 1/2 days.

Both of those San Francisco entries raced in the Aloha class, which was introduced in 1997 to accommodate boats that while older, heavier or blessed with interior comforts ranging from air conditioning to big-screen TVs, still wanted to race to Hawaii. They may not use their auxiliary engines but may use power-assisted winches and other aids.

No sailor has been lost in the race, although one fell overboard in 1951 and was rescued after a daylong search. Another skipper died in 1967after being stricken with a perforated ulcer. He was taken off the boat and returned to San Diego, where he succumbed.

The record number of entries was 80 in 1979, the fewest two in 1932, during the Great Depression.

The Transpac is one of only six races listed as Ocean Classics in the book, "Top Yacht Races Of the World." It remains a race for boats large and small and sailors amateur and professional, with perhaps the most desirable destination of all.

-history courtesy of Rich Roberts