Coffee Conversation: Local Sailor Joins All-Amateur Crew in Legendary Transpac Race

DULUTH, Minn. — Local sailor Lizzie Easter joined Fox 21’s morning newscast Monday, August 18, to share her recent accomplishment: competing in the 2025 Transpacific Yacht Race, a 2,225-mile journey from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Easter, who grew up sailing in Minneapolis and now races out of Duluth, was part of an amateur crew aboard a fully restored 1981 Norseman 447. The team, half of them women, spent years training and preparing for the legendary offshore race.

Easter says the crossing tested endurance, teamwork, and seamanship, from battling heavy winds off California to surfing Pacific swells under spinnaker. Finishing, she says, was a milestone that proved “what’s possible with dedication, trust, and a passion for adventure.”