The mighty Pegasus performed well in the last 24 hours: our 6 am position yesterday was 32-58 N, 119-20 W. This morning at 6 am we were at 28-35N, 122-39 W. A simple spherical geometry calculation gives us a great circle distance of 312 nautical miles at a course of 214 degrees true. That’s a…
As I hopped on deck at Twilight, there was brand new sliver of moon to the West together with Venus on one side and Jupiter opposite. Spectacular and a great opportunity to take one of the 4 mandatory sights. I’ll catch a quick snooze while Richard watches over everything. In a few hours, it will…
This boat is wet, wild and fast. She comes alive in 18 knots or more and then flies. But she’s really wet. Very wet. Check out the pictures. When it looks wet in the pictures, you know that it was wet! As the sun comes down, the wind pulled back from low twenties to low…
This morning we know that we paid a high price to get South. In fact the position reports seem to show that we are to the left of most of the fleet. To get there, we’ve lost a considerable amount of distance. Now we must make it up by sailing fast. The conditions are perfect,…
4 am, pitch black the wind built to 14 knots and then died, and then built again. Double handed is great fun. Richard is sleeping tight, and I get to play with everything on the boat. When the wind dies, boards up induces leeward heel with the keel, trim, run to the bow to see…
The race-start was very confusing in light winds. Lots of boats with a full Catalina Eddy going. We started in 7 knots coming from 140 deg with the line set square to the course to Hawaii which is 247, the port side of the line was so favored that the whole fleet pretty much started…
That’s all that we can be sure of this morning: Go West! Most models point to the North, with some uncertainty: Two days upwind in 20 to 30 knots and big seas, then a nice run to Honolulu. Forecasters and models agree with first waypoints around: Latitude 31.30 N and longitude 125.00W. The good news…
Last minute preparations. With how busy we’ve been at Fullpower, a lot of things are pushed to the last moments. We were laughing that all the other race boats were all tidied up and everyone was tucked in bed while we are burning the midnight oil. Our watch system started 24 hours ago! In the mean…
Now it’s a bit of a game of chicken: There are two tropical depressions active in the eastern Pacific (See the chart). Both of these systems are forecast to strengthen into Tropical Storms in the next 24 hours. The first one, TD5 will likely weaken after 28 hours, while the second one, TD6 is likely to continue strengthening to…
Choices, choices: Looking at the chart today, the great circle route crosses both a high and a low… And anything in between. That’s when you think about the deer crossing the road: When you drive, you aim at “where the dear came from”. That of course works unless the deer is caught in the headlights.…
All is good with the Pegasus. Except for the electronics. In the last couple of days we found challenges in interfacing our computers to the real-time sensor network that gives us wind, speed and position information. So I’ve been a bit hand’s on trying to fix this one and let Richard focus on the preparation…
The Open 50 is in Long Beach getting provisioned and pampered. I’m in Santa Cruz, working with the Fullpower team and getting our portable weather systems to work and help with the routing. This year is going to be pretty tricky. This is my 10th time across and I think that the weather systems may…
In full prep mode. These boats are complex with canting keels, dagger boards, water ballast. Everything has to work perfectly because at the five minute gun, it’s just Richard and I for 10 days. Our start is with more than 25 fully crewed boats. And big boats too. “Starboard-Leeward is our friend”.
Here is our first serious sailing on the new Pegasus Open 50. Richard Clarke (didn’t get a shot of Richard’s face, but that’s Richard’s back…) and I are training for the double-handed Transpac. Just the two of us for 10 days across the Pacific. Yesterday we had a great sail from San Francisco to Santa…
Boat exited yard at 2030 last night and she hit the road heading west at 0500 this morning. She was shrink wrapped in clear so she will make quite an impression across the USA over the next few days! Boat , keel, mast and boom all weighed by measurer yesterday, completion in SF.
The morning departure from Goetz boatyard in Rhode Island to San Francisco. It will take 5 days to get across the country.
Putting the finishing touches on the Pegasus Open 50…. Skipper: Philippe Kahn Co-Skipper: Richard Clarke Sail number: 101 Rig: bermudan sloop LOA (ft.): 50.00 ft. Draft (m): 4.1m Beam (m): 4.6m Hull color: blue/white Yacht Club: Waikiki Yacht Club Designer: Owen Clarke Design Class or type: Open 50 Builder: McConaghy Project management: David Giles, Faye Lin Onshore Pegasus Racing team: Bruce Mahoney, Mark Golsh, Jana…
We finish just before Midnight Hawaii time. Recorded Finish Time: July 25th, 23:14:13 HST With our brand new Transpac 52 we bettered the record set in 1979 by Merlin, a 70 ft sled! We finished 3 hours and 15 minutes ahead of the next Transpac 52! That was an extraordinary performance with a boat that…
We had a great start and we’re on our way to Honolulu. This is my 7th crossing and I’ve decided to go “unplugged” this year in order to focus on sailing and thinking. Sailing a smaller boat is a bigger challenge in that there are less of us and we all take a bigger role.…
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…
Taking the Pegasus 52 for a sail in 25 knots of wind down the California coast….
We finished buffing Pegasus 52 and launched her in the water. We are now in Long Beach. The team is now making last minute adjustments so that we are completely ready to race.
Pegasus 52 is being built “just-in-time”. We will sail for the first time on June 22nd. It’s an aggressive tight schedule. She’s beautiful and the latest Farr design. Here she is leaving Goetz Boat Builders in Newport, RI, heading cross-country to California. Pegasus 52 Sail number: 85858 Rig: Sloop LOA (ft.): 52 Draft (ft): 10.5…
Philippe Kahn and Pegasus Racing sailing towards a win of the Transpac 2003.