Transpac: Celebrating the fast boats

Honolulu, Hawaii (July 11, 2023) – The biennial Transpac Race begins with three staggered starts to tighten the finish window for the 2225 nm course from Los Angeles to Honolulu, yet there remains the need for three staggered trophy presentations as the fast boats are, well, fast.

However, an irony of this year’s Transpac is that the teams that raced the fastest boats were expected to be in days ago and therefore celebrating their division victories first would make sense for efficient event planning.

Yet, two of these winning teams finished just in the last 24 hours, with one crossing the finish at Diamond Head only this morning at 5:30 am, less than 12 hours before the awards.

The lighter winds experienced by the starters in the final group on July 1, particularly in the first 24 hours getting off the coast of California, was the difference. While the two earlier starting divisions sped away to the west, nearly all the entries in the final group took almost as long to get to Hawaii as their slower-rated rivals.

This affected the overall fleet results, where the top places went to teams in the second start on June 29 and will be recognized at the next trophy ceremony at Hawaii Yacht Club on July 13…

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