The Tahiti Race is Back!

Long Beach, California - There used to be an adventurer's race from California to Tahiti. Since 1925, a handful of sailors have occasionally set out for an old-fashioned yacht race across the Doldrums and down - over 3,500 miles of Pacific sailing on “the downhill run to Pape'ete,” as Stephen Stills put it - called the Tahiti Race. The last Tahiti Race was run in 1994, and tomorrow the 22nd of June, the race is on again.

It's not exactly Phoenix rising from the ashes, but it's a start. Though the fleet has doubled since the last race, it's still only four boats. With the logistical challenges of finding a sailboat capable of making the trip with any speed, and crew capable of taking the time, it's not easy. There are no big sponsors with fat wallets, no banner-waving or nationalist agenda, just a bunch of people who want to race.

The boats this year are affectionately referred to as classics. A Santa Cruz 50 Fortaleza, An Andrews 63 Medicine Man, A Spencer 65 Ragtime (a two-time Transpac winner), and the biggest stretch of waterline is the Andrews 80 Magnitude 80 - the baby of the fleet, built in '04. The last time the race was run, there was no GPS, no asymmetric spinnakers, no packet mail, and no tracking. Navigation was achieved with a sextant, dead reckoning, and an eye on the Southern Cross.

If conditions are reasonable, Magnitude 80 is expected to break the record of 14 days 21 hours 15 minutes 26 seconds set by the late Fred Kirschner’s Santa Cruz 70, Kathmandu, in 1994. The sleek white boat already has bagged several coastal records in races to Mexico. Overall, the race will be scored on a special TPYC Tahiti rating issued by US Sailing.

-BH/RR for YachtPals