Transpac Race to Hawaii Begins Today for Some

The first 11 of 42 boats entered in the 37th biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii will set sail off Point Fermin at 1 o’clock today.

It is the smallest fleet for the world’s oldest long-distance ocean race--2,225 nautical miles--since 32 sailed in 1963.

The start is staggered over four days with the hope that the head start will give the smaller, slower boats a chance to come out even with the 16 largest, fastest boats that leave Saturday. It won’t, but the slower sailors probably won’t miss as many parties in Honolulu.

Today’s starters include three J/35s, at 35 feet the smallest boats in the fleet. Two--Ralph Schmitt’s Air Stripper from Oxnard and Doug Ament’s Koinonia from San Diego--are among 15 boats competing in the new Performance Handicap Racing Fleet class for boats usually not sailed beyond sight of land.

Also among today’s starters is Antara, a Cal 40 with the race’s first all-female crew since 1979. Cal 40s have been out of production for years, and skipper Bonnie Gibson has never raced across the Pacific. She chartered the boat from owner Barry Schuyler of Santa Barbara.

Three boats, all in the International Measurement System class for more comfortable cruiser-racers, will start Thursday, followed by 12 boats Friday.

Then will come the final 15, including the stars of the race, 13 ULDB 70s. The sleds will be shooting for the race record of 8 days 11 hours 1 minute 45 seconds set by Merlin in 1977 but will need strong, steady winds to do it.

One advantage they will have with the staggered start is being able to follow earlier starters into the most favorable winds, if they can interpret performance information correctly.

Among the favorites are Roy Disney’s Santa Cruz 70 Pyewacket, Mike Campbell’s Andrews 70 Victoria and John DeLaura’s SC 70 Silver Bullet.

Victoria will have America’s Cup veteran Chris Dickson of New Zealand and his father Roy on board. Dickson dropped off the world match-racing circuit this year to prepare for the Whitbread Round-the-World race starting in September.

Merlin, three times first to finish, also will start Saturday but has been reconfigured for the PHRF class.

The defending champion, Chance, is missing. Bob McNulty sold the dark blue SC 70 after sweeping class, handicap and first-to-finish honors in 1991.