Philippe Kahn, Pegasus 55, wins first-to-finish trophy at Single-Handed Farallon Race 2002
April 20th, 2002, in San Francisco, was the single-handed Farallon Race, windy, with big waves, and fun. I was lucky and won the first-to-finish trophy… 60 Nautical Miles, starting in San Francisco, offshore on a bearing of 240 degrees magnetic around the Farallons 30 Miles out and back into the Bay through the Golden Gate on a magnetic bearing of 60 degrees. Wind conditions varied from a Southerly at the start to a stiff North Westerly. Big waves left over from the gale that has been blowing offshore in the last few days. Very rewarding to get that winning gun after almost 7 hours of challenging and fast solo sailing! Nice way to start the sailing season this year with this very special single-handed event. Stan Honey was also racing single-handed as well as quite a few luminaries. Good fortune helped me a lot. Thanks to the Pegasus Racing team for preparing the boat and the skipper so well! Racing was the easy part!
![The Track](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-chart.jpg)
The Track
This chart shows my track. The red track is outbound, the green one is inbound. Because the wind was so far left and I wanted to sail hot angles which are faster with Pegasus 55, I jibed the Northern coast. Furthermore coming back quickly has a disadvantage as there was still quite a bit of ebb, and along the Northern coast it was starting to flood. I crossed at Point Bonita and jibed at the South Tower. I put in another jibe to lay the finish line.
![Approaching the islands](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-approaching-the-islands.jpg)
Approaching and rounding the islands
The South East Farallons are over 400 ft tall and can be seen from far away. I was lifted all the way from Point Bonita where I saw a true wind direction of 220 degrees magnetic. By the time I was at the Farallons, the wind had clocked to 295 degrees magnetic.
![Approaching the islands 2](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-approaching-the-islands-2.jpg)
There are breakers to watch for. The islands are to be rounded to port.
![Cutting it close](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-cutting-it-close.jpg)
I cut the islands too close. I was racing and liked the lead that I had built during the long upwind leg. I did promise myself not to take such risks again and not cut that close to the islands again.
![Rounding the islands](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-rounding-the-islands.jpg)
Rounding the windward side happens quite quickly. It is going to be time to jibe.
![Solo around the island](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-solo-around-island.jpg)
After four and a half hours upwind a picture is worth 1000 words, but there is nobody else to take the picture and of course, nobody to hear any of the words!
![About to jibe](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-jibe.jpg)
Returning from the islands
So the jibe is coming pretty soon. It is very important to stay clear of the lee of the islands as there is a big wind shadow and one could easily stay parked in the lee of the Islands.
![Returning...](https://www.pegasusracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/pegasus-racing-2002-philippe-kahn-wins-farallon-race-returning.jpg)
The return got windier as I got closer to the Golden Gate. The top wind speed that I saw all day was 28 knots, top boat speed was 20.3 knots down a wave. I had to shift gears a lot during the race, reef, and un-reef many times because there were times when there were only 11 knots of breeze, and then 20+ knot puffs would blow out of nowhere and last for 15 minutes or more.
The results:
Sail number 55001, Pegasus finished at 16:13:37 with an elapsed time of 7:13:37 hours. The next boat to finish was a Santa Cruz 50 with water ballast, sail number 28154 Sundownwer, and finished at 16:57:39 with an elapsed time of 7:57:39, or 44 minutes and 3 seconds behind Pegasus 55.