Pegasus Racing wins the 2001 Transpac

Transpac 2001

Philippe Kahn and Pegasus Racing sailing Pegasus 77 win Transpac 2001. Team includes key sailors from Alinghi, OneWorld, and Team New Zealand. Photos by Sharon Green.

Class: Division 1 Make and Type: Reichel-Pugh 75 Sail number: 50008 Rig: Sloop LOA (ft.): 77 Draft (ft): 12.5 Beam (ft): 15 Hull color: White / Blue Yacht Club: Waikiki Yacht Club Hailing port: Honolulu, HI, Waikiki Yacht Club Designer: Reichel Pugh Builder: McConaghy Where built: Sydney, Australia Year launched: 2001 Racing Class or Division:…

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Epilogue

Team Pegasus won long hard battle on the great Pacific Ocean. There are a few remarks that I thought pertinent as I am sitting here in Honolulu looking at beautiful Diamond Head. Race tactics and strategy: On Pegasus 77, we were determined to match race Pyewacket for 2250 nautical Miles. Our understanding is that Pyewacket…

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Light and Hot

For the last 5 hours its been light and hot. Real light. And that is nerve racking because we’re all thinking: “If the Pyewacket guys have 5 knots more wind than we do, we could see our lead evaporate”. There is not much that we can do but to rest the team, sail fast and…

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The morning after the squalls

Date 07/08/01 Lat 24 21 North Lon 152 03 West Course over ground: 220 Degrees Speed over ground: 12.5 knots Wind speed: 18 knots Wind direction: 079 degrees Team Pegasus battled squalls all night, making endless spinnaker, jib-top, stay sail changes. After seven days of hard racing this was a heroic effort. When we lost…

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Haleakala in sight!

Date 07/09/01 Lat 21 58 North Lon 156 27 West Course over ground: 264 Degrees Speed over ground: 14 knots Wind speed: 19 knots Wind direction: 096 degrees Towering at 10,000 ft the Haleakala volcano situated on Maui is the first majestic landmark that we sight. You can see and accumulation of clouds with the…

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Betting on ETAs

500 Miles out as customary on-board Pegasus we started a betting pool for ETAs. We started it, but Shark seems to have taken ownership of all the process. He’s on the ship’s computers looking at routing software trying to figure out the “best educated guess”.   Each bet is $10 and we’re all allowed to…

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Squalls everywhere!

The night is full of squalls. Now anything can happen in this race. We lost touch with Pyewacket in the heavy rain. We were becalmed for a while. They may have passed us. Now we are on the front end of another squall with winds gusting to 30 knots shifted 35 degrees to the right.…

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Drag race to Honolulu

Date 07/07/01 Lat 26 23 North Lon 148 20West Course over ground: 264 Degrees Speed over ground: 18 knots Wind speed: 27 knots Wind direction: 062 degrees The position report this morning showed Pegasus ahead of Chance and Pyewacket. Chance is farther north and behind us probably betting on a very large and sudden right…

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Tactical changes

Date 07/06/01 Lat 28 53 North Lon 141 35 West Course over ground: 264 Degrees Speed over ground: 16 knots Wind speed: 22 knots Wind direction: 051 degrees This morning when we all reported our positions Team Pegasus was silently waiting for the news: Was our gambit paying off? The news was mixed: In some…

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A lesson in patience and composure

Date 07/05/01 Lat 26 27 North Lon 135 49 West Course over ground: 256 Degrees Speed over ground: 12 knots Wind speed: 15.5 knots Wind direction: 040 degrees A lesson in patience and composure: It’s hard to win every position report! At this morning’s position reports Chance and Pyewacket were ahead on distance to Hawaii!…

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Tactics that worked and strange weather

Date 07/04/01 Lat 28 06 North Lon 130 49 West Course over ground: 216 Degrees Speed over ground: 11.5 knots Wind speed: 14 knots Wind direction: 008 degrees For most of the night the wind was oscillating between 345 and 015 degrees magnetic, with header puffs gusting to 20 knots and lulls down to 10…

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So where do we want to sail tomorrow?

Since yesterday, Pegasus gained slightly on the our three competitors: Pyewacket, Chance and Merlin. Pegasus continues to lead our class in the standings. However, we are all in close proximity to one another and any of the boats could end-up winning this race. It’s of course nice to be in the lead, but this is…

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Fast, windy, cold and wet night #2

Date 07/03/01 Lat 30 05 North Lon 125 14 West Course over ground: 240 Degrees Speed over ground: 14 knots Wind speed: 17 knots Wind direction: 350 degrees A beautiful night of sailing, but a wet, windy and cold one. Just what night #2 of Transpac is supposed to be: Full foul weather gear and…

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First Night at Sea

Date 07/02/01 Lat 32 30 North Lon 120 26 West Course over ground: 230 Degrees Speed over ground: 11 knots Wind Speed: 12 knots First night at sea and the race starts again! As the sun came down we headed almost straight for Honolulu on a course of 220 degrees magnetic. The wind was where…

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The start, part II

Date 07/01/01 Lat 33 31 North Lon 118 45 West Course over ground: 185 Degrees Speed over ground: 4.75 knots Wind Speed: 5 knots The starting line and around Catalina Island: The prevailing wind regime offshore, away from the land, will be North Westerly winds at about 300 degrees magnetic. However around the LA Basin…

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The Start, part I

Our Starting line is just off San Pedro in the port district of Los Angeles. Then we must leave the Santa Catalina to port (left side). After that, its free-style to Honolulu, we get to pick our course. Of course the shortest distance to Honolulu is a great circle. And every year a couple of…

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Saturday June 30th: Weather update

We have a 1024mb high pressure near 32n/131w this morning, Saturday the 30th, with the high weakening some during the next 24 hours as we prepare for our race. We, of course would very much like to have a strong, well formed high for a fast race. For the start of the race, tomorrow, we…

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A broken head and new wind!

When offshore for 7 to 9 days, the galley (kitchen) and the head (toilet) together with a dry and warm berth (bed) are about the most important things in your life. We lost one this morning: We broke our head. So basically we all go and do our business over the side of the boat,…

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