News

Transpac Race 2021 Now Open For Entries

Quentin Stewart's Infinity 46r Maverick from the UK at high speed just moments before finishing Transpac 50 at Diamond Head - photo Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing

The Transpacific Yacht Club is pleased to announce the next 2021 edition of the LA to Honolulu Transpac is now open for entry. This will be the 51^st edition of this 2225-mile biennial ocean racing classic first raced in 1906, with the first of three starts scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 2021 and the final awards ceremony to be held in Honolulu on Friday, July 30^th, 2021.

“Amidst all the recent bad news about races being cancelled or postponed this season, we hope this early opening for entries will be good news for all ocean sailors interested in Transpac next year,” said Jim Eddy, Commodore of the Transpacific YC. “In fact, we already have our first entry within minutes of opening the site!”

Transpac-Tahiti Race Postponed

Los Angeles, California – Organizers from the Transpacific Yacht Club and Archipelagoes in Papeete announce the planned May 28^th start of the 3570-mile Transpac Tahiti Race from Los Angeles to Tahiti has been postponed.

While racing at sea has no inherent risk in the pandemic, the recent imposition of public health restrictions in both California and French Polynesia have made it nearly impossible for entries to prepare or plan for both the race and its logistical support.

“While our fleet is small, we still have concerns for everyone’s health and safety,” Race Committee Chairman Tom Trujillo, “and we want to be fully compliant with the letter and spirit of the current regulations.”

Possible new start dates are being reviewed in consultation with current entries and weather experts. The latter is important to minimize another risk: the South Pacific tropical storm season, where strong winds and high seas may cross the race course during summer months.

Currently there are 10 entries – 8 monohulls and 2 multihulls – one of the strongest turnouts in the history of the race, which has been held only 15 times since its inaugural edition in 1925. Entry Chairman Dave Cort believes this decision may lose a few of the current entries, but may pick up some more.

“There is a lot of interest in going to Auckland for the next America’s Cup in 2021,” said Cort, “and some want to use this race to get to the South Pacific and keep going west. We may see more interest in entering among those with this agenda.”

2020 Transpac Tahiti Race Officially Postponed

We have been carefully monitoring the ever-changing public health restrictions in both California and Tahiti related to the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Given the recent tightening of these restrictions to extreme levels where it makes it impossible to prepare or plan for both the race and its logistical support, we feel the conditions are not safe nor suitable to proceed as planned for a race start in the next two months.

Therefore we feel it best for now to postpone the May 28 start of the TranspacTahiti Race. While our fleet is small, we still have concerns for everyone’s health and safety, and we want to be fully compliant with the letter and spirit of the current regulations.

Please feel free to reach out to us and discuss your thoughts or concerns, your feedback is valuable to us.

The Story of the 2019 Transpacific Yacht Race: Huge Turnout for Anniversary Race

It was clear as early as 10 months prior to the 50^th Transpac held in July 2019 that this was going to be an immensely popular race – by September 2018 there were already 50 entries on the roster, which went to over 80 in December, and this peaked at one time to 108 boats by early-Spring 2019, a figure that would have shattered the previous participation record of 80 entries set in 1979.

Yet even with 73 monohulls and 6 multihulls crossing the finish at Diamond Head, with 9 yachts retiring, this was an impressive record turnout for this 2225-mile biennial ocean racing classic. Teams from 7 nations were represented at the starts, with the fleet broken into 12 racing divisions ranging in size from two entries (Multihull Class 0A) to fifteen (Monohull Class 1).

New Start Date and Two More Entries

Los Angeles, CA — Demonstrating the strong adventure appeal of what was once the world’s longest ocean race, organizers of the 2020 Transpac Tahiti Race are pleased to announce the acceptance of two more monohull entries, both from Australia. Bill Barry-Cotter from Coomera, Queensland has entered the Schumacher 54 Swiftsure II, and Zoe Taylor and Chris Way from Sydney have entered their Cookson 50 Grace O’Malley. This brings the entry count to 15 in this 15th edition of this 3570-mile race first sailed in 1925, and only one short of the record turnout of 16 entries in the 6th edition of the race held in 1968.

The Race’s First Luxury Performance Multihull

John Gallagher’s Gunboat 62 Chim Chim is the race’s first luxury performance multihull to enter the 2020 Transpac Tahiti Race. This Morrelli and Melvin-designed catamaran was built 15 years ago in South Africa yet has remained incredibly active in the last five years: not only has she raced in the 2015 and 2017 Transpac races to Honolulu at 2225 miles each, but also raced over 1000 miles in the 2018 San Diego-Puerto Vallarta Race and a few editions of California Offshore Race Week as well.

Hamachi: The Journey to Overall Victory

Extended cut capturing Hamachi's magical ride across the Pacific Ocean and taking first overall in the 50th edition of Transpac. They captured this video to compete in an new Transpac award class for best race video produced on the water. After Hamachi sailed into first place half way through the race, all thoughts of producing a video disappeared. Enjoy this cut of extended clips, b-roll and out-takes that attempt to capture the sights and sounds of being on a 41ft (12.5 meter) racing boat ripping across an ocean.

Match Race and a Half

Dave and Peter Askew’s Volvo 70 Wizard (ex-Groupama) made head- lines in 2019 for some pretty impressive race results throughout the Atlantic arena: first overall in the RORC’s Caribbean 600 in Feb- ruary, first overall in the New York YC’s Transatlantic Race, and yet another win in the Rolex Fastnet Race in August. The US-based Wizard team was not able to replicate this result in a complicated light-air Middle Sea Race in Malta in October, yet one struggles to recall any team in history who has won outright three of four classic ocean races of over 600nm miles in the same year.