Skipper Alli Bell and Restless crew on course to make Transpac history
by David Schmidt / Transpacific Yacht Club 15 Jul 06:28 UTC
15 July 2025
The (fiber)glass ceiling endured for 119 years.
On Sunday night at 2223, local time, skipper Alli Bell and the crew of her Cal 40 Restless took a winch handle to the notion that winning the Transpacific Yacht Race's top corrected-time prize requires membership in an old-boys club or a mighty war chest.
Bell's Cal 40 crossed the race's storied finish line off of Honolulu's Diamond Head with an estimated corrected finish time of 8 days, 12 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds. Provisionally, this is the fastest time among the 53 boats, competing in 10 divisions, that began this year's 2,225-nautical mile race in Los Angeles.
Bell and her Restless crew will be honored with the King Kalakaua Trophy for fastest corrected time; they are also the winners of Bridger Insurance Division 9. More importantly, Bell cemented her place in history as the first woman skipper to win the Transpac, which was founded in 1906 and is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest offshore races.
Bell and her four crew members—all Corinthian sailors, save one professional who raced off-the-clock—bested many teams that benefited from newer, faster designs, better sails, and fully professional crews. By contrast, Restless was flying second-hand sails aboard a boat that was designed in the mid-1960s. More impressive still, the team topped the corrected-time leaderboard for all but a handful of hours of their elapsed time of 12 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes and 16 seconds. The race began for Bell at 1320, Pacific Daylight Time, on Tuesday, July 1.
The seeds of Bell's historic win were sown decades ago when her grandfather, Willard Bell, purchased Westward, the family's Lapworth 50. The Transpac Race runs deep in Bell family lore, and generations of sailing Bells have raced Westward in the cross-Pacific competition. Bell sailed the first of her five Transpacs in 2013 with two of her uncles and three of her cousins aboard Westward, a boat that she described as an older cousin to her Cal 40, itself a design with its own Transpac pedigree.
Family ties abound amongst the Restless crew: Bell's winning team consisted of her cousin, Graham Bell, who served as navigator; her husband, Stephen Driscoll; plus friends Eric Heim and Greg Reynolds. Another cousin, Mara Bell-Hoshina was planning to sail with the team, but broke two ribs about a week before the race and had to remain ashore.
"It was just something that happened," said Bell about the last-minute crew shake-up. "We dealt with it and adapted our schedules."
When Bell bought Restless in 2019, her first call was to her cousin Graham, requesting his services at the navigation station. Then, a lengthy work list began. "Pretty much anything that could be touched, was," said Bell. This included upgrading the boat's hull-to-deck joint, replacing the toe rails and the cockpit coaming handrails, and repainting the interior.
"A bunch of people saw that I was upgrading the boat for the race, and they offered secondhand sails, boat parts and equipment to help us," said Bell, who works ashore as a higher-education policy analyst.
Unlike many boats that were vying for the King Kalakaua Trophy, Restless isn't a high-dollar program. "In a difficult race, with a lot of great performances, this one stands out," said Bill Guilfoyle, Commodore of Transpacific Yacht Club and a five-time Transpac Race veteran. "It demonstrates that anybody with a well-prepared boat who sails well has the potential of winning," he said.
Guilfoyle was clear that Bell's win is a testament to her skills as a sailor, a skipper and a leader. "This should be an inspiration to anybody who doesn't have the multimillion-dollar budget and wants to compete," Guilfoyle continued. "This shows you can do that."
Bell, it should be noted, is a first-time Transpac skipper, TPYC's current Rear Commodore and Vice Commodore of San Diego Yacht Club. Interestingly, Alan Andrews, TPYC's Vice Commodore and a noted yacht designer, raced this year aboard John Raymont's Ker 42 Fast Exit II, which had been one of the 2025 provisional winners until Restless usurped their position on the estimated corrected-time leaderboard. "That our Rear Commodore and Vice Commodore were not only in the race, but were as competitive as they were, is a testament to the fact that we're a club of sailors," said Guilfoyle.
Take, for example, the inevitable racecourse challenges.
"It's always at night," said Bell, describing the crux of their race. "Something happens that's kind of scary, but turns out to be really scary."
During the 12 and a half days that Restless was at sea, this moment arrived when the spinnaker guy line unexpectedly let go while the team was straight-line sailing, sending the spinnaker pole clocking forward. "Everybody just did their jobs," reported Bell, adding that the team communicated well with each other in the heat of foredeck battle, and, once the situation was contained, they debriefed.
While the night fight is a legendary part of offshore racing in general, and of Transpac in particular, so too are the times of unbridled joy.
"We had champagne sailing conditions for about three hours on Sunday afternoon," Bell said, describing Restless's final day at sea. "We were just going straight down the pike, headed for home. There was no need for big movements or adjustments—it was just dreamlike sailing."
But then came the race's final test: the notoriously windy Moloka'i Channel, which Bell said delivered 28-30 knot winds and huge seas. At times, the boat hit double-digit speeds as they sailed the final few dozen miles toward Oahu.
Restless crossed the finish line at 2223 local time and about a half hour later, arrived at their slip in the Ala Wai Harbor to the sight of more than 100 family members, friends and fellow competitors. "It was so awesome," said Bell.
When asked how it felt to be a major role model for tomorrow's Transpac sailors, Bell characteristically downplayed her achievement.
"I don't think I'm a role model," she said, the emotion thick in her voice. "I'm just someone who wanted to do something and did it."
The Transpacific Yacht Club extends its congratulations to Bell and the Restless crew on their win and will communicate the final standings for the 2025 Transpac once all competitors have crossed the finish line and all corrected-time scores have been ratified. Also, as a reminder to all newly minted race veterans, membership in the TPYC is open to anyone who has completed a Transpac or Tahiti race.
View provisional results here.
Find out more at transpacyc.com.