13 October 2003 – Harry Melges scored two impressive wins on the opening day of the Audi Melges 24 World Championships in San Francisco. It was a tough day of racing for the sixty nine strong fleet which has gathered from 10 nations for this sixth Melges 24 World Championship.
The outcome of the Pegasus 77-Pyewacket contest was determined early on, not by boat speed but by strategic differences of opinion.
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 2003 Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles early yesterday. Kahn’s arch rival later described the path laid by the lunar reflection on the water as “like sailing down the moon river,” but Roy E. DISNEY and his crew aboard Pyewacket were nearly five hours behind in a match of equally powerful sailing machines.
Boat Deftly Navigates 2,225-mile Crossing From L.A. To Honolulu To Win 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race By Nearly Five Hours
HONOLULU — LightSurf founder and chief executive officer Philippe Kahn won
the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
HONOLULU—Lady Bleu II, an Aloha A class entry, blew into town at mid-day
Sunday to grab its 15 hours or so of fame in the 42nd Transpacific Yacht
Race from Los Angeles, as Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus 77 bore down on Diamond
Head with a one-day mileage record in its log and its sights on a rare clean
sweep in the 2,225-nautical mile contest.
LOS ANGELES—Now, this is Transpac. Steady northeast trade winds of 14 to
18 knots have boosted the fleet of 54 boats in the 42nd Transpacific Yacht
Race to their top speeds so far, including near-record one-day runs Friday
into Saturday by Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus 77 and Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket.
LOS ANGELES—There is still a lot of sailing to do, but a scenario is
taking shape for a fairy tale finish to the revival of the Cal 40 class in
the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.
LOS ANGELES—The slowest elapsed time ever in 41 previous Transpacific
Yacht Races since 1906 was five minutes shy of 24 days by William Merry’s
Viking Childe, a 42-foot ketch from Long Beach, Calif., in 1939.
Pegasus 77 sailed only 265 miles in the previous 24 hours but that was 31
miles more than Pyewacket, which has endured the added pain of bearing
south away from the rhumb (direct) line in search of stronger breeze.
Pegasus 77 is now headed more directly toward the finish line 1,447 miles
away, eight miles closer than Pyewacket in the 2,225-nautical race.
LOS ANGELES—Pegasus 77 sailed farther and faster Tuesday but Pyewacket
stretched its lead in the marquee match race of the 42nd Transpacific Yacht
Race to Hawaii, a situation that has often been an anomaly of the race for
the last half-century.
LOS ANGELES—Before Sunday’s last start in the 42nd Transpacific Yacht
Race, Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket was flying two appropriate battle flags: a
cat and a mouse.
LOS ANGELES— Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket led Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus 77 past
the West End of Santa Catalina Island and into open ocean as the great match
race of the 42nd Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii unfolded Sunday.
LOS ANGELES—Get ready for match racing, Transpac style. Philippe Kahn’s
defending Barn Door winner, Pegasus 77, and Roy E. Disney’s record holder,
Pyewacket, will be the only boats starting in Division 1 of the 42nd
Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii Sunday, truly in a class by themselves.
HONOLULU – The rivalry stands at 2-0 after last weekend’s 13th annual Coastal Cup race
when Pegasus 77, a Reichel/Pugh 77, ran away from Pyewacket, an R/P 75, in
the record time of 26 hours 24 minutes 55 seconds for the Encinal Yacht
Club’s 360-nautical mile race from San Francisco to Santa Catalina Island.
With early strong winds fading to a drifter, Pyewacket dropped out 25 miles
from the finish 2 1/2 hours after Pegasus 77 had finished.
Coastal Cup 2003 Skipper’s Log Competitors: Pyewacket Designer: Reichel-Pugh 77 Sail number: 50008 Rig: Sloop LOA (ft.): 77 Draft (ft): 12.5 Beam (ft): 15 Hull color: White / Blue Yacht Club: Waikiki Yacht Club, St. Francis Yacht Club Designer: Reichel Pugh Builder: McConaghy, Sydney, Australia Year launched: 2001, turbo-charged in May 2003 Skipper: Philippe Kahn Navigator: Philippe Kahn, standing in for Mark Rudiger who is presently racing across the Atlantic Watch…
With just one more day to go, the fight for supremacy in the Melges 24 fleet at Terra Nova Trading Key West 2004 is going to go all the way. Day four saw the race committee run two more excellent races despite a second day of shifty offshore winds of 12-16 knots. The completion of race seven today meant that the discard came into play and suddenly its all change on the leader board.
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…
With almost 80 entries from 10 nations and 3 continents the 2001 Melges 24 World Championship, being held in association with Terra Nova Trading/Yachting Key West Race Week from 20-25 January 2002, will be the biggest Melges 24 event ever held in the USA.
Team Pegasus is making major progress with the Melges 24. Our tune-up for the Worlds included the Asahi SuperCup in Hawaii. Winds were blowing between 20 and 30+ knots in perfect conditions. Over 75 Melges 24s raced at the Worlds in Key West Florida. Team Pegasus ran two boats at the Worlds: One skippered by…
The California-based technology entrepreneur Philippe Kahn and his all-star crew aboard Pegasus won the Barn Door trophy in the biennial Transpac Race.
HONOLULU – The Barn Door is settled. Now comes the scramble for handicap honors. With Philippe Kahn’s Pegasus tucked safely in its slip at Ala Wai Yacht Harbor with honors secured for fastest elapsed time in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race, several smaller boats were due to finish before the Hawaiian sun sets Tuesday. This is when a calculator becomes more important than a GPS.
HONOLULU – Philippe Kahn, a, French-born software developer from Santa Cruz, Calif., Monday won it on his second try when he sailed his 75-foot ultralight sloop Pegasus past the finish line off Diamond Head after 8 days 2 hours 34 minutes 3 seconds. Pegasus was an hour and three minutes ahead of Disney’s Pyewacket to climax an epochal three-way battle across 2,225 nautical miles from Los Angeles that also included Bob McNulty’s boat Chance.
HONOLULU – Pegasus increased its lead on Pyewacket over Sunday night and was 16 miles ahead with 92 miles to go at Monday morning’s roll call in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race.
HONOLULU – There was little change in their relative positions through the day Sunday as Pegasus, Pyewacket and Chance answered evening roll call and sailed into their final sleepless night of the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.