With 44 races starting in 1906, the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii is well into its second century as the longest of the two oldest ocean races in the world. The first race was the year of the great San Francisco earthquake, which literally altered the course of the event.

The race was inspired by King Kalakaua, the revered Hawaiian leader of the late 19th century who believed that such an event would strengthen the islands' economic and cultural ties to the mainland. But it didn't happen until Clarence MacFarlane, a Honolulu racing sailor, invited several contemporaries in San Francisco and Los Angeles to race to the Hawaiian Islands. The race was scheduled to start in the early summer of 1906, but when MacFarlane sailed his 48-foot schooner into San Francisco Bay he realized there would have to be a change of plans. The city lay in ruins following the great earthquake 27 days earlier. 

But MacFarlane wasn't easily discouraged. He simply changed the starting point to Los Angeles, and except for one nostalgic return to San Francisco for the start in 1939, the race has started in Southern California ever since. The starting line is now off the bluffs of Point Fermin in San Pedro at the southern edge of the City of Los Angeles. The finish is off the Diamond Head lighthouse just east of Honolulu, establishing a distance of 2,225 nautical miles.

The 2009 race was the 45th Transpac. It has been sailed by 1,700 boats from 17 countries, including 124 foreign competitors. The race is run biennially in odd-numbered years, alternating with the Newport-to-Bermuda race that also started in 1906.

The fastest in the fleet have traditionally competed for the Transpacific Yacht Club Perpetual Trophy, which is better known as the "Barn Door" for its unique size. It is a 3 1/2 x 4-foot plaque of hand-carved Hawaiian koa wood bearing the words "FIRST TO FINISH," which isn't necessarily so anymore. Since 1991 the starts have been staggered. The slower boats start a few days ahead of the faster boats in order to compress the finishes and facilitate celebrations in Hawaii, and occasionally one will finish before the later, faster starters. Thus, the Barn Door goes to the monohull (multihulls aren’t eligible) with the fastest elapsed time. 

Smaller and/or slower boats unable to match the largest ones in sheer speed compete for a prize more relevant to crew performance: the King Kalakaua perpetual trophy for the best corrected handicap time. Each boat's speed potential is calculated from a rating system based on time and distance, rewarding the crew that sailed its boat nearest to its potential, regardless of size. The winner also receives the take-home Governor of Hawaii trophy, a hand-carved model of a Hawaiian sailing canoe.

Transpac stands apart from other major ocean races as essentially a "downwind” race, as determined by normal weather patterns in the eastern Pacific north of the equator. But the most successful boats seldom sail a straight line to Hawaii, instead taking a southerly course to avoid the "Pacific High," a mammoth, ever-shifting region of high pressure (and thus light winds) rotating clockwise between Hawaii and the West Coast of North America. After two or three days of sailing against the wind, they come into the warm, following trade winds. Spinnakers go up, layers come off, and sailors traditionally enjoy a faster and more pleasant ride the rest of the way.

Oddly, it wasn't until the second half-century of the race following World War II that competitors figured out this phenomenon and used it to their advantage in charting their courses and optimizing their boats for downwind performance. But the race remains a navigational challenge. While the smart call usually has been to sail a longer course looping farther south into stronger breeze, thus sailing farther but faster, the trick is not to sail so far south as to experience diminishing returns.

Later, that strategy led to the evolution from small, lightweight boats in the 60s to large ocean racers that have paced the race since the 80s: first, ULDB 70 "sleds," so-called for their "downhill" performance, and then the maxZ86s and other long, skinny and ultralight speed burners that led a record assault in 2005. 

The current monohull record holder is Morning Glory, a Reichel/Pugh-designed maxZ86 owned by industrial software magnate Hasso Plattner of Germany. His boat led the way in 2005 with an elapsed time of 6 days 19 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds, knocking 19 1/2 hours off the record set by the third of Roy E. Disney's Pyewackets in 1999. The former vice chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Co. (he is Walt's nephew and son of company co-founder Roy Disney) was only 2 1/2 hours behind on his fourth Pyewacket, also an R/P maxZ86, in his 15th Transpac over 30 years.

Disney's age that year – 75 – matched the number of starters, the second highest next to 80 in 1979. That was followed by 73 in 2007, validating Transpac's resurgence to a peak of popularity – at both ends of the race. Since 2005, complementing the traditional luau welcomes in Hawaii, Transpac has accepted the hospitality of the City of Long Beach as its mainland home port and a highlight of its annual Sea Festival celebration. In 2007 the city's Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine funded and emplaced along the harbor's edge 11 permanent historical monuments chronicling each decade of the race in text and photos.

Now, instead of simply showing up at the starting line and sailing away, Transpac racers gather with complimentary mooring in Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach for a week or more before their starts, greeting visitors while enjoying camaraderie and surrounding attractions such as Shoreline Village, the Aquarium of the Pacific and upscale restaurants. From there, following spirited ceremonial sendoffs when each boat and its crew is introduced to throngs on the surrounding promenades, they proceed eight miles west to Point Fermin for their starts, and the racing is on.

Since allowing multihulls to compete, the fastest elapsed time would not necessarily be by a monohull. The late Steve Fossett's 60-foot trimaran Lakota raced the course in 6 days 16 hours 7 minutes 16 seconds in 1995, well under the monohull record at the time of 8:11:01:45 by the ultralight displacement "sled" Merlin that stood for 20 years. Then in 1997 Bruno Peyron's 86-foot catamaran Explorer smashed Fossett's multihull record with a time of 5 days 9 hours 18 minutes 26 seconds.

The largest boat ever to race the Transpac was the 161-foot Goodwill, whose best time was 10 1/2 days in 1959. The smallest boat was the 25-foot B-25 named Vapor, sailed doublehanded by Bill Boyd and Scott Atwood of Long Beach in 1999, which caused some anxiety because of a faulty radio that prevented them from communicating for the entire race. Size is now artificially restricted by imposing "speed limit" ratings on all entries through evaluation of potential performance. 

Along with the boats, the face of the race itself is evolving with modern times. Since 1979 there have been all-woman crews, and in 1997 there was a crew composed entirely of men with HIV and AIDS who carried a message of hope on the horizon for a cure for the disease. In 2003 and 2005 a team of sailors with disabilities, representing Challenged America of San Diego, raced a Tripp 40 called B'Quest. Doublehanded crews have been recognized since 1995, and 2005 saw a record of seven doublehanded entries, including the first all-woman duo, Patricia Garfield and Diane Murray, and the first coed team, James and Ann Read, with their dog Sweetie Pie. The Reads, who were in no hurry, logged the slowest race time ever from Los Angeles to Honolulu: 22 1/2 days. 

Both of those San Francisco entries raced in the Aloha class, which was introduced in 1997 to accommodate boats that, while older, heavier or blessed with interior comforts ranging from air conditioning to big-screen TVs, still wanted to race to Hawaii. They may not use their auxiliary engines but may use power-assisted winches and other aids. 

Transpac offers not only a full range of boats but competitors as well. Crew members have been as young as 11. The two youngest crews ever were in 2007 when Disney recruited and trained a team of 15 sailors, including four alternates, ages 18 to 23 (average age 21.1) to sail a Transpac 52 called Morning Light — the same name as the documentary theater film that chronicles their experience. An even younger crew in the race was five young men ages 17 to 23 led by brothers Sean and Justin Doyle of Hawaii, who sailed their father Dan's boat, a 1D35 renamed On the Edge of Destiny. Their average age: 19.8.

The oldest full crew was six men ages 66 to 72 (average 68.3) sailing Lloyd Sellinger's Cal 40 Bubala in 2005, and there was a doublehanded crew of Mike Abraham and Phillip Rowe, each 70, sailing the J/133 Tango in 2007.

No sailor has been lost in the race, although one fell overboard in 1951 and was rescued after a daylong search. Another skipper died in 1967 after being stricken with a perforated ulcer. He was taken off the boat and returned to San Diego, where he succumbed. 

The record number of entries was 80 in 1979, the fewest two in 1932, during the Great Depression.

The Transpac is one of only six races listed as Ocean Classics in the book, "Top Yacht Races of the World."  It remains a race for boats large and small and sailors amateur and professional, with perhaps the most desirable destination of all.

Story By: Rich Roberts