Just one more big ‘Aloha!’

dpt-transpac15TextNM28GVNVTranspac advance+updateDaily Pilot SAILING: The biggest boats leave today for Hawaii in the Transpacific Yacht Race.ALOHA SEND-OFF

WHAT: Transpacific Yacht Race

WHERE: Rainbow Harbor,

Long Beach

WHEN: Today, 10 a.m.Today is the last chance for sailing enthusiasts to watch the ships disappear into the horizon on a celebrated biennial journey to Hawaii.

Yachts of medium speed and size competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race departed Wednesday, and the smallest and slowest boats have been on the water since Monday.

Today, 23 of the 74 boats sailing the Transpac will depart from Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach at 10 a.m., including Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket.

The crew on each boat will be introduced and saluted with an “Aloha!” cannon blast as it departs from Long Beach. The start, which is open to the public, may be viewed from Point Fermin Park.

The smaller boats, which are already on their way on the 2,225 nautical-mile trip, struggled early with light and erratic winds. Steadier winds are forecast as the biggest and fastest boats join the race.

Pyewacket is the boat Disney has souped up to make it a near-guaranteed winner, after Hasso Platterner’s Morning Glory broke his race record by 19 1/2 hours in 2005.

Disney, who was planning to retire from competitive sailing, donated his boat, a maxZ86, to the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship, but then decided to reclaim his record. The 77-year old sailor chartered his boat from Orange Coast and extended it by eight feet to 94 feet.

He also added a new mast to Pyewacket, new dagger boards, and three-foot wide wings at the stern where crew members can stack unused sails for ballast stability.

Pyewacket’s closest threat for the barn door trophy comes from Magnitude 80 from Long Beach.

The Barn Door is the huge slab of carved koa wood awarded to the monohull with the fastest elapsed time. Magnitude 80 was the boat that broke the 22-year-old record in the Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta Race by 31 hours. In the 2005 Transpac, it was among five boats to break Disney’s 1999 record.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].