An interview with Bill Guilfoyle about the 2025 Transpacific Yacht Race
by David Schmidt 1 Jul 08:00 PDT
July 1, 2025
Transpac © Stephen Cloutier/Transpacific Yacht Club 2023
When it comes to offshore sailing in the United States, the biennial Transpacific Yacht Race reigns supreme for its distance and promise of off-the-breeze sailing angles. The race, which is organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club and supported by the Hawaii Yacht Club, the Waikiki Yacht Club, the Kaneohe Yacht Club, the Los Angeles Yacht Club, and the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club, begins off of Los Angeles with a series of three pursuit-style starts (July 1, July 3, and July 5, 2025) and takes crews across some 2,225 nautical miles of Pacific Ocean brine to a finishing line off of Honolulu, Hawaii. The 2025 edition marks the 53rd time that this storied race has been contested since its inception in 1906, and it promises to be a highly competitive event.
A quick glance at this year's entry list reveals some of the biggest names in yacht racing.
This includes Bryon Ehrhart's Lucky (née, Rambler 88), Roy Disney's Pyewacket, and Johannes Schwarz's Noahs II, plus two of the most famous yacht's in the race's history—Tina Roberts' John Spencer-designed Ragtime, which twice won the race's barn door trophy for the fastest elapsed time (1973 and 1975), and Chip Merlin's Bill Lee-designed Merlin, which was designed and built to beat Ragtime, and which set a new course record in 1977 of 8 days 11 hours, 1 minute, and 45 seconds.
Merlin's impressive 1977 record stood for 20 years.
While all eyes will be on the first boat to Hawaii, not to mention the showdown between Merlin and Ragtime, this year marks the first time that the different handicap winners will be decided using the Time-on-Time Forecast Time Correction Factor system, which the Transpac Race helped to develop. It also marks the first time that real-time AIS data will be available to competitors.
Cooler still, of the race's 55 entered boats, roughly ten percent of these teams will be skippered by women.
I checked in with Bill Guilfoyle, who serves as commodore of the Transpacific Yacht Club, via email, to learn more about this offshore classic.
How many boats have entered this year's Transpac? Also, how does this number compare with recent editions of the race?
As of the close of entries we have 55 boats. We budgeted for 50 and usually have 50-60 boats making this a pretty typical year.
How many international entries are there? And what about out-of-state (or out-of-region) entries?
We have four international entries including boats from Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, and Canada. We also have four boats from the Pacific Northwest,three boats from the Midwest, and two boats from Hawaii.
At least one additional international entry, Zeus, sailed in Transpac 2023 [but unfortunately] encountered shipping delays preventing them from returning this year.
This year marks the first time that the classic John Spencer-designed Ragtime has competed in the race since 2009. It also sets the stage for a showdown between Ragtime and the Bill Lee-designed Merlin. Any thought on which team might be the faster gun this year?
We're all excited to have these two back to face off again this year. I know better than to try to predict the outcome, but I can assure you the Whittier trust Division will be one to watch.
Of the eight sleds in the division, four are previous division winners and, as a group, have won the Barn Door Trophy nine times.
The race has adopted a Time-on-Time Forecast Time Correction Factor (F-TCF) for the first time this year. What kind of impact do you think this could have on the results?
F-TCF scoring is the product of years of development led by the Transpacific Yacht Club's Technical Committee with important support from US Sailing. It represents one of the most significant improvements to scoring in recent memory.
As part of that development process, we shadow-scored the 2023 Transpac Race using F-TCF and learned that it resulted in closer corrected finish times and greatly reduced the impact of varying weather conditions on the different start days.
Starlink has become ubiquitous on racing sailboats. Do you think it changes the nature of a long race like Transpac if crews have access to the latest news, stock-market fluctuations, and social media feeds while they are off at sea?
Ultimately, that's up to the teams and how they choose to use the technology.
Pre-Starlink, getting high-speed access to updated weather data required expensive hardware and even more expensive data charges. Now, even the most budget-conscious teams can affordably get the same weather information used by the top professional teams, which will serve to level the playing field.
With that comes the new challenge of not letting access to the internet distract the crew from focusing on sail trim, boatspeed, and strategy.
It's a double-edged sword, on the one hand disconnecting is one of the great benefits to offshore sailing, on the other hand getting time off for long races can be difficult for many and having access may allow some to race while still tending to their shore-based obligations.
It's probably too early to tell how that will balance out, but I hope it leads to greater participation without losing the rare experience and camaraderie that comes from crossing an ocean with a small team and getting away from the shoreside routines.
The race is allowing competitors to view each other's real-time AIS information this year. Do you feel that this will change the nature of the race, compared to previous editions that used YB trackers with four-hour delays? If so, can you please explain?
The new rules adopted by US Sailing are intended to improve safety.
Transpac starts are spread over three days with the slower boats starting first. As the race progresses many of faster boats catch and overtake those that started ahead of them. Particularly at night, the use of AIS will add an extra measure of safety as boats cross paths.
Requiring boats to transmit their position throughout the race is not only useful tool for collision avoidance but also, in the case of an emergency will make it easier to locate a boat requiring assistance.
Use of AIS makes the tracker delay unnecessary. As far as how it might impact the race, I don't think it will have a big effect the navigational decisions but may have an impact on the crews focus on boatspeed.
You can often see another boat but don't know how fast they're going. With AIS, knowing the speed of boat on the horizon may motivate teams to work harder to squeeze out another tenth of a knot to keep pace or chase them down.
I noticed that about ten percent of the fleet is being skippered by women, which is great. Has Transpac always had this level of leadership representation, or is this a new trend in recent years? If it's the latter, what do you think has changed to make the race more inclusive?
It's great to see so many women leading their teams. I'm not aware of a Transpac that has had greater women's representation. Hopefully this will inspire more women to follow suit in the years ahead.
Is there anything else about this year's Transpac that you'd like to add, for the record?
Few sports depend as much on volunteers as yacht racing. In the case of Transpac, we have an army of volunteers who make this race possible. Literally hundreds of people, starting with TPYC Flag Officers and Directors to our mainland partners at Los Angeles Yacht Club and Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club and their members.
In Honolulu, led by the Honolulu Committee, with incredible support from Waikiki YC, Kanehoe YC, and this year's host club, Hawaii YC, who famously organize volunteers to meet every boat no matter what time day or night with lei's, ice-cold Mai Tai's and a warm Aloha welcome.
Mahalo (thank you) to all involved for your commitment to the effort over the last two years.