July 16th, 2005

This is my 7th Trans-Pacific race. Everyone is a different experience. This time we decided to build a small ultra light and fast boat and sail with a small team. We’ve won the Barn Door twice before and it is fun to try something new. Smaller boats are generally more fun. In a big boat you don’t feel the speed, you experience it on the electronic instruments. On a small boat, you get wet, you feel the wind and the wave. You know you’re going fast even with your eyes shut.

I write this as we just wrapped up a last minute Fullpower business meeting, I’m going to be sailing the great Pacific Ocean for the next 8 days. Sonia and I will be flying to Long Beach for a great team dinner with the boys. That’s always the best, the team dinner before the race. There’s a bit of magic and anticipation. I find that with the smaller boat and the smaller crew it’s even more so as there are less electronics (no navigation station in the Pegasus 52, it would be too heavy and slow us down and there is so little freeboard in the boat that one crawls down below. You are either outside or lying down in a bunk,…. ) and each team member needs to pull more of their own weight. Unfortunately, Shark won’t be with us this time as he will be on the other side of the pond as he is sailing the 49er North Americans at the Gorge… he’s a member of the US Sailing Team now (At 15…. I’m so proud of him…) and that conflicted with Transpac….

We think of ourselves as from Honolulu. We always race for the Waikiki yacht Club and Honolulu is our main home (our favorite). Unfortunately there is not much TP-52 racing in Hawaii yet besides the Waikiki Offshore Series, which we are doing, so most of our TP-52 racing will be on the East Coast or the West Coast. In other words, we are a Hawaii entry! Our slip is in front of the Waikiki yacht Club. That’s home! So the “white Flying Horse” can start smelling the barn…..!