Race Logs

Competitor: Pyewacket Designer: Reichel-Pugh Sail number: 50008 Rig: Sloop LOA (ft.): 77 Draft (ft): 12.5 Beam (ft): 15 Hull color: White / Blue Yacht Club: Waikiki and St. Francis Yacht Club Builder: McConaghy, Sydney, Australia Year launched: 2001, turbo-charged in May 2003 Skipper: Philippe Kahn Navigator: Mark Rudiger Watch Captain 1: Mark Christensen Watch Captain 2: Morgan Larson Crew: Zan Drejes, Samuel “Shark” Kahn, Sean “Doogie” Couvreux, Jeff Madrigali, Mark Christensen, Morgan…

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42nd TRANSPACIFIC YACHT RACE Transpacific Yacht Club www.transpacificyc.org July 14, 2003 For Immediate Release PEGASUS 77 RIDES A MOON RIVER TO VICTORY HONOLULU—A full moon lighted the way past the Diamond Head finish line for Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus 77 and a second consecutive Barn Door victory in the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles…

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253 nm to Honolulu at a bearing of 241 degrees magnetic It’s lighter but we are pushing really hard. We just realized that we had a chance at top three in corrected time. We really never thought that we’d play in the handicap game. So, now we have a new goal: Let’s try to be…

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Lat: 22 NorthLon: 153 West Another good report card this morning. In the last 24 hours, we gained another 14 Miles. Now Pyewacket is 75 miles behind Pegasus dead astern. We sailed point to point 356 miles compared to 336 to Pyewacket. There is a fierce battle between TP52s about a day behind us: The Kiwi big…

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Another fabulous night of sailing. The waves are just right. We are being conservative and will let Pyewacket take a more risky road. We expect that we could lose 10 to 20 miles in the last 24 hours as we are protecting our lead. Our lead is such that we can well afford this insurance…

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During this voyage I sent a lot of Picture-Mails, they are all collected in this log. I had a terrific surprise when I received one from my daughter, Sophie, who is 6 years old. The Sprint PCS picture-phones are amazing and you can now get them for less than $100 and a $15/month subscription that…

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Lat: 22 North Lon: 148 West Around the 14:00 HST race organization roll, call Pyewacket’s private jet called the Pyewacket on the SSB. The planes call sign was “Shamrock” and they were overseeing our portion of the race-course having most competitors around lat 22 North and lon 150 West in sight. Pyewacket responded with a lat/lon position…

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Lat: 22 North Lon: 146 West A perfect night of sailing. With the moon almost full, perfect temperature, the ideal wave setup this may have been some of the best sailing ever. We felt that we sailed fast all night and that we kept Pegasus 77 on track, pumping and grinding for every wave. The morning roll…

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Lat: 21 North Lon: 144 West Superlative sailing with an extraordinary sunset. We had the visit of a pod of small size friendly Dolphins. We even saw a few sea-bars. Yet we’re still more than 750 miles from the Hawaiian Islands. ‘We’re bracing for the night. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Pyewacket make some gains at…

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Date: Friday, July 11th Lat: 21 North Lon: 142 West Just beautiful sailing here. The team is working hard, grinding on every wave. We’re surfing the Hawaii and that is how it should be. Pegasus 77 loves it: She can smell the barn. Goals are key to any team. So, our goal is to win this match race…

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Date: Friday, July 11th Time: 08:00 HST Lat: 21 North Lon: 140 West And three cheers on board the mighty Pegasus, because there are three good reasons to do so: 1. Pegasus stretched again on Pyewacket: They are now bearing 050 degrees @ 63 nm with Honolulu bearing 261. That’s a gain of 17 degrees of bearing and 8 miles…

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Lat: 23 North Lon: 137 West It’s beautiful sailing here: The trades are back up to 16-18 knots. We’ve got our 4A spinnaker up with a staysail. This is just what the brochure advertised and why California to Honolulu passages are probably some of the best offshore sailing in the world. This is my sixth trans-Pacific crossing…

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You’ve found the best place for today’s hot Transpac stories: Pegasus 77 stretched from 8 to 43 Miles in 24 hours and increased bearing by more than 45 degrees! Our early investments in sailing South are paying off. Couple that with sailing the Pegasus at its full potential for 24 hours and the numbers tell…

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Lat: 25 North Lon: 135 West Wind: 14 kts @ 74 Deg Heading: 220 deg Boat Speed: 13 knots We’re sailing in moderate trade winds. The Moon set and it’s pitch dark with the skies mostly overcast. The first part of the night was pure magic: Glittering waters with the reflection of the moon, big skies, bright stars, little trade-wind…

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Date: Wednesday July 9th Time: 07:00 HST Notice how we are now using HST (Hawaiian Standard Time). We’re pointed almost directly to Honolulu, we’re sailing in light trades, sounds like a good time to skip 3 time-zones. If you remember for the last three days, we had been sailing more distance than the competition investing in what…

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Date: Tuesday July 8th Time: 03:45 PST The weather and sea-state have completely changed. It’s now warm, overcast, winds are shifty and lighter and we’ve got the big kite and a stay sail up. We’re entering the running phase of Transpac. It’s unusually early: This is my sixth trans-Pacific crossing and it usually takes one…

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The routine on-board is getting organized, the watches are changing smoothly and we’re sailing along in 16 knots of wind, shifted almost all the way to the North. We’re about to officially enter the ridge zone. That’s much closer to shore than two years ago at Transpac 2001 . You can tell on the latest…

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We’re sailing along nicely. Good news: That tropical storm has weakened and has now been downgraded to tropical depression. We’ll still watch Dolores. It’s nice to know that we can safely stay South. The team is a bit ambivalent about this Skipper’s log because I kind of spill the beans. I guess that if we…

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Roll call is every morning at 08:00 PST. Every racing yacht reports, and every crew member is waiting to know what happened through the night. That’s because during the night, anything can happen. This morning at roll call, Pyewacket is ahead of us in distance to Hawaii. We are 25 Nautical Miles South of them…

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Date: Monday, July 7th Time: 05:05 PST Boat Speed: 16knots Course: 220 degrees Wind Speed: 24 knots It’s fast and crisp sailing, although wet and cold. The wind is down 5 knots. Our first quarter moon has set and the sun is about to rise. When it bounces hard like this right into an offshore race, lots of lunches…

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