Sixteen boats hit the line for the first start of three in the 2025 Transpac. Next stop: Hawaii.
The 16 boats that crossed the starting line today in the 2025 Transpac are up against the challenge of a lifetime. As the smallest yachts in this year’s 53-strong fleet, they are about to endure the greatest number of difficult days at sea, but they also have the greatest—and longest—opportunity to enjoy the splendors of sailing across the Pacific. After all, the more time one spends at sea, the more exposure one has to its moods and its majesty.
Four divisions began racing today at 1320, local time, on the waters off of Los Angeles’s Point Fermin. Organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club, the biennial event is considered one of the world’s premier ocean races. It uses three pursuit-style starts spread over five days (July 1, 3, and 5, 2025) to help all 53 boats finish within days of each other at Honolulu’s Diamond Head. With boats ranging from 35 to 88 feet, the staggered starts favor smaller vessels first so the fleet can make landfall in Hawaii around the same time.
The boats that started today may seem to saunter compared with the bigger steeds starting later this week. But, given that the event’s top prize—the King Kalakaua Trophy—is determined using the Offshore Racing Rule handicap system, the playing field is level on this 2,225 nautical mile course.
Just moments before today’s start, LA’s fireboat blasted a celebratory spray of Pacific brine, dousing the starting area amidst a 10-12 knot westerly that was gusting to 15+ by the first signal. A dragging leeward mark required a 20-minute postponement to ensure a proper line, but—come 1320—the starting gun fired in earnest, and the fleet set off on the adventure of a lifetime.
“Most of the boats will head off to the southwest, rather than higher courses that are closer to the rhumb line,” forecasted Chris Bedford, a professional yachting meteorologist and the co-creator of the Marine Weather University, in an interview call on Monday morning. “Once they get out of the bight, the usual northwesterly likely won’t be there, so there could be a bit of a light period on Wednesday that they have to work across until the northwesterly builds back in,” he said, referring to the California coastline between Point Conception to the northwest and San Diego to the southeast. “Once they get into that, the fleet will continue to see the wind increase and veer, and then when they get down to the trades, it looks like they could be a couple of knots stronger than normal this year,” he said.
Offshore, Bedford added, the seas have been running higher than usual this year.
HOW TO FOLLOW TRANSPAC 2025
The hub of the race where you can find everything from the official noticeboard, schedule, results, news, photos, videos, sponsor shout-outs, history and more.
The Transpac Pasha YB Tracker is the best way to follow the competition day by day via live AIS positions.
Like and follow the page to stay up to date on key information and changes. Participating competitors can tag and reshare posts featuring their teams—use #transpac2025 and tag @transpacrace.
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