While many of us are celebrating the 4th of July here on land or on the Bay there are maybe 4-500 sailors in two separate races that will be celebrating mid-Pacific as they head for Hawaii.

The second start of the 53-boat Transpac fleet took off from Point Fermin yesterday but faced dramatically different conditions than the Tuesday starters. The Thursday starters have been suffering light winds trying to get to the breeze offshore and, thanks to Yellowbrick and Starlink, they have to do it while watching the Tuesday starters on their screens scoot west in a fresh breeze. Tuesday’s racers started with a solid breeze and made quick work of the leg from the starting line around Catalina Island and to start reaching off to Hawaii. And looks like light winds for the final batch of 20 Saturday starters. Tuesday’s starters were the lucky ones. 

The pursuit-style format has been used in many past editions, but this year the event is employing an adjustment to the rating system called the Forecast-Time Correction Factor (F-TCF). This will adjust the finishes for the variations of breeze across the different starting days to allow for a potentially fairer correction factor for overall positions.

In 2023 it was the Thursday starters that got the right starting day in giving Dave Moore and the crew aboard his Santa Cruz 52 Westerly a jump on first overall, which they hung on to all the way to first overall at the finish line. 

“The first 24 hours, we think, are going to be by far the most difficult of the race,” said Roth, from T/S Cal Maritime—Oaxaca, noting that he expects his team of friends will heavily leverage their number one genoa and exist on little sleep during this time. “It’s a race where you can gain a lot in the light stuff at the start, and it’s a race to the synoptics,” he said, referring to the stronger offshore winds. “From there, we’re looking forward to getting into some breeze, pushing the boat hard and being as competitive as possible.” Right now they’re still going four knots and trying to get to the breeze on the tracker. 

Meanwhile, the leaders of the 11-boat Singlehanded Transpac that started on San Francisco on Sunday, June 22 are just nearing the finish line off Hanalei Bay on Kuai. After 12 days of racing just eight miles separates Michael Polklaba on his Cal 40 Solstice and Loren Brindze on his Hobie 33 Topaz. Solstice is currently leading with under 125 miles to go until the finish. The leaders should be dropping the hook in Hanalei Bay upon arrival tomorrow. 

The last Transpac starters will be taking off tomorrow while the Singlehanded Transpac racers will be starting to cross their finish line.