TRANSPAC’S HISTORIC HIGHLIGHTS

YEAR SUBJECT DETAILS
  Total Starters

51 races: 2,111

2019  Largest Fleet

90 yachts

1932  Smallest Fleet

2 yachts

1953 & 1959  Largest Yacht

Goodwill, 161 feet, with a best time of 10 1/2 days

  Smallest Yacht

Vapor, 25 feet

2013  Oldest Yacht

Dorade (52-foot Sparkman & Stephens sloop), 83 years

2017  Fastest Elapsed Time (Monohull)

5 days 1 hour 55 minutes 26 seconds
Comanche (Guillaume Verdier and VPLP Architects 100-foot maxi yacht), Jim Clark (owner) / Ken Read (skipper)

1997  Fastest Elapsed Time (Multihull)

4 days 6 hours 32 minutes 30 seconds
Mighty Merloe (60-foot trimaran), HL Enloe

1939  Slowest Elapsed Time from San Francisco (Monohull)

23 days 23 hours 55 minutes 4 seconds
Viking Childe (42-foot ketch), William Merry

2005  Slowest Elapsed Time from Los Angeles

22 days 11 hours 36 minutes 15 seconds
Camille (Stewart 42), James and Ann Read, doublehanded

2009  Fastest Doublehanded Elapsed Time

7 days 18 hours 38 minutes 35 seconds
Pegasus 50 (Open 50), Phillipe Kahn/Mark Christensen

2021  Longest Days 24 Hour Run (Monohull)

505.75 nautical miles
Pyewacket 70

1939  Shortest Days 24 Hour Run

0 nautical miles (7 miles in 7 days)
Viking Childe

1955  Closest Boat-For-Boat Finish

4 seconds
Kawamee over Marie Amelie (for 6th to finish in Class B)

1973  Closest First to Finish

4 minutes 31 seconds
Ragtime def. Windward Passage

1973 to 2009  Most Races By a Boat

15 races by Ragtime, Spencer 65 sloop

  Most Races Won Boat (Skipper/Owner)

Lurline:

  • 1906 (H. H. Sinclair) Elapsed – 12days 10 hours: First to finish, First corrected, First course record
  • 1908 (H. H. Sinclair) Elapsed – 13days 21 hours: First to finish, First corrected
  • 1912 (A. E. Davis) Elapsed – 13 days 17 hours: First to finish, First corrected

Grand Illusion:

  • 1999 (James McDowell) Elapsed – 7 days 8 hours 40:10 minutes: First corrected
  • 2011 (James McDowell) Elapsed – 8 days 16 hours 59:23 minutes: First corrected
  • 2015 (James McDowell) Elapsed – 8 days 15 hours 56:16 minutes: First corrected
  Most Race Won on Elapsed Time

Lurline (1906, 1908, and 1912), and Morning Star (1949, 1951, and 1955).

  Most Races By Individual

Roy P. Disney: 25 races from 1975 to 2021

Gary Weisman: 25 races from 1969 to 2021

  Most Transpac and Tahiti Races by Individual

Gary Weisman: 26 races

  Youngest Crew Members

Larry Folsom Jr. - Centurion, 1975 - 11 years 35 days

Virginia Munsey - Silhouette II, 1957 - 11 years 42 days

Samuel (Shark) Kahn - Pegasus, 2001 - 11 years 11 months

  Total Hawaiian Entries

114

  Total International Entries

159 (record of 14 in 2013)

  International Yacht Trophy Winners

2015 – Fastest elapsed time (unlimited) – Wild Oats XI (R/P 100), Australia

2013 – Fastest elapsed time (unlimited) – Ragamuffin 100 (Elliot 100), Australia

2013 – First, Div. 7 – Ten Quarter (First 40), Japan

2011 – Fastest elapsed time (unlimited) – O Canada (Open 60), Canada

2011 – Fastest elapsed time (multihull) – Espiritu Santi (Atlantic 57), Mexico

2011 – First, Div. 1 – Peligroso (Kernan 70), Mexico

2009 – Fastest elapsed time: Alfa Romeo (R/P 100), New Zealand

2003 – Second overall corrected time – Beau Geste (Transpac 52), Hong Kong

1997 – First, multihull – Explorer (86'), France

1995 – First overall – Merlin (Lee 66), Canada

1995 – First, Div. 1 – Merlin (Lee 66), Canada

1995 – First, Div. 2B – Exile, British Virgin Islands

1979 – Second overall, Class B – Miyakodori, Japan

1967 – First to finish – Stormvogel, South Africa

1951, 1953 – First, Class B – Chiriqui, Balboa Canal Zone

  International Ports Represented
  • Australia
  • Balboa Canal Zone
  • Canada
  • D'Antibes
  • Fiji
  • Germany
  • Holland
  • Hong Kong
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Spain
  • Peru
  • Russia
  • South Africa
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • Virgin Islands (British)
  Start Locations

The race started in Los Angeles every year except 1928 (Newport Beach), 1923 and 1932 (Santa Barbara).

1993  First Multi-Day Starts

The first multi-day staggered start of the race

  Transpac Races Skipped Due to World Wars

The race was run every even-numbered year from 1906 through 1936, except for 10 years during World War I. It then changed to odd-numbered years in 1939 so as not to conflict with the East Coat's Bermuda Race.

Transpac was not raced from 1942 through 1946 during World War II.

1969  Stern First Finish

The only yacht to cross the Diamond Head finish line stern-first was the 78-foot ketch Mir, when she lost her mast and was backed across the line with her mizzen.