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Last Starters are First to Celebrate

Honoring the first of three rounds of trophy winners & celebrating Transpac's bright future

The Transpacific Yacht Race celebrated its first Trophy Ceremony for the 2025 edition of this biennial ocean race on Tuesday, July 15, at Waikiki Yacht Club, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Last night's celebration—the first of three ceremonies—welcomed an exuberant crowd of sailors, friends and family to honor the winners of four of the race’s 10 divisions, plus several other trophies. 

Established in 1906 and organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club, the 2,225 nautical mile race from Los Angeles to Hawaii is widely considered one of yacht racing’s greatest offshore events. 

Skipper Alli Bell and Restless Crew on Course to Make Transpac History

First woman skipper to win Transpac Race Overall

The (fiber)glass ceiling endured for 119 years.

On Sunday night at 2223, local time, skipper Alli Bell and the crew of her Cal 40 Restless took a winch handle to the notion that winning the Transpacific Yacht Race’s top corrected-time prize requires membership in an old-boys club or a mighty war chest. Bell’s Cal 40 crossed the race’s storied finish line off of Honolulu’s Diamond Head with an estimated corrected finish time of 8 days, 12 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds. Provisionally, this is the fastest time among the 53 boats, competing in 10 divisions, that began this year’s 2,225-nautical mile race in Los Angeles.

Reflections Aboard Heroic Heart and Fifty Years of Sailing and Friendships

…for my purpose holds,
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield

—Tennyson, from Ulysses

It’s 2 a.m. and we are downwind on the A1.5 spinnaker. Expedition just crashed, and I lost the last half-hour of my latest route analysis. Did I already grab the latest GRIB file from Saildocs or is that still the one from yesterday? The battery alarm is going off. 12.17 volts, time to run the engine. Again. Seems like it’s only been a few hours. Oh right, it was yesterday afternoon. I hear my name, and I’m summoned from outside the companionway. It’s time to set aside polars, strip charts, and the Balmar voltage regulator manual to handle the pole lift through another gybe. Just another stretch as the navigator on Transpac 2025.

Earning the Podium: How Transpac’s First Finishers Did It

From a Maxi-sled to a doublehanded keelboat and a 68-foot catamaran, the first teams to reach Diamond Head are as varied as they are inspiring

Few finish lines are more spectacular—or more well-earned—than that of the Transpacific Yacht Race. Stretching from a starting line off Los Angeles’s Point Fermin, to a finish off of Honolulu’s Diamond Head, this 2,225 nautical miles of Pacific gives sailors ample opportunity to press their off-the-breeze inventory against typically cooperative tradewinds. This biennial race is organized by Transpacific Yacht Club with three pursuit-style starts so that all finishers can arrive in Honolulu at a steady pace over several days. As of press time, a total of 19 boats have crossed the finish line, with 30 arriving over the coming few days.

2025 Barn Door Trophy Goes to Lucky

Lucky, an 88-foot Juan K-designed yacht owned by Bryon Ehrhart, claimed the Transpac’s coveted Barn Door Trophy on Friday, July 11, as the first monohull to finish the 2025 race. Crossing the Diamond Head finish line at approximately 0723 Hawaiian time, Lucky completed the 2,225-mile course in 5 days, 21 hours, 23 minutes and 49 seconds—the fifth-fastest elapsed time for a Barn Door winner in race history.