Pacific Cup 2002 Skipper's Blog: Our training run for Transpac 2003

Pegasus 77 blasting down the waves

Competitors: Zephyrus 86, Mari-Cha 147
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
Designer: Reichel Pugh
Builder: McConaghy, Sydney, Australia
Year launched: 2001

Skipper: Philippe Kahn

Navigator: Ed Adams
Watch Captain 1: Jeff Madrigali
Watch Captain 2: Mark Rudiger
Crew: Kevin Miller, Zan Drejes, Freddy Loof, Richard Clarke, Mike Joubert, Tony Kolb, Dave Morris, Samuel "Shark" Kahn, Sean "Doogie" Couvreub

Thursday July 11th: Preparations and more Preparations!

Now is the time for last minute preparations: 13 hungry sailors will need to eat well, drink well, sleep as well as possible in order to perform. That's a lot of planning because we don't have refrigeration in order to save weight. In fact we carry very little water as we make water along the way with our Spectra watermaker. I personally like the pure water that comes out of the Spectra watermaker. But we need to supplement it with vitamins and minerals. It takes quite a bit of planning, because once we leave the dock, there are no stores until Honolulu!

Pegasus won the start, but after 30 minutes as this PictureMail shows, Zephyrus and Mari Cha powered by us using their huge size advantage

Passing Mari-Cha 2.5 hours after the start

Sailing in light air

Passing Zephyrus after 3.5 hours

Sailing with Zephyrus behind us after 4 hours

Friday, July 12th:

A Thrilling Start!

We started in 20 knots. Pegasus had the better start but with our water length disadvantage, by the time we got out of the Golden Gate, both Mari-Cha and Zephyrus were significantly ahead. When we crossed the Gate, we expected a right hand shift and we stayed right. Both Mari-Cha and Zephyrus tacked and went left. They went the wrong way. The wind shifted as we expected. After a couple of hours we crossed tacks again and Pegasus was clear ahead!

We had accomplished the impossible: we were now leading much larger racing yachts. We accomplished this through a combination of skill, teamwork and luck.

We were both lucky and the wind got light enough. It went back and forth a few times. We even got to call "Starboard" on Zephyrus and they had to bear away to avoid fouling us. All great fun as you can see from the PictureMails. First we got to pass Mari-Cha, then Zephyrus. A great morale booster for Pegasus Racing!

We know that both of these mega-yachts will pass us again. But it's really nice to be sailing clear ahead of both of them as the sun goes down and we settle on our watch system.

By Midnight, the wind had evaporated. We are now drifting 10 miles south
of the Farallon islands, going nowhere fast. There is fog and we've lost
sight of both Zephyrus and Mari-Cha. They could be way ahead of us if
they kept on sailing in more wind. We'll have to wait for the morning
position reports to know.

The weather charts tell us that we should see more wind after midnight.
We're keeping our fingers crossed.

2am Update:

It is now 3 am, and we've been drifting for a few hours. We passed the Farallon Islands and it glassed out. We are just sitting in a wind hole, watching the fluorescence of the Ocean and checking out the playful seals around us. The Farallon Islands Marine Preserve has one of the highest concentrations of great white sharks in the world. So we're looking for black fins, humming the theme for Jaws and hoping for wind.

We see lights in the distance, in the fog, glowing and a bit fuzzy reflected on the glassed out ocean surface. Some are fishing boats, but we fear that some of them could be the masthead lights of our competitors and we may not be ahead anymore. The smaller boats in particular could do very well in super-light conditions.

We're waiting for the wind.

5:30 am: Just as suddenly as the wind disappeared, we got to the edge of the transition zone and a nice North Westerly 11 knot breeze settled in. Nice. Did our competition find the new wind before us?

Sharks do sleep!

Pegasus 77 is Fabulous!

Date: Sunday, July 14th
Lat: 31 59 North
Lon: 128 05 West
Course over ground: 203 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 16 knots

We loved Pegasus when we won Transpac 2001. Since the finish of Transpac 2001 we put Pegasus in her Transpac 2003 mode. That meant taking out 7000 pounds of lead out of the bilge, having a 2500 pound heavier bulb, moving the head stay forward 4 ft, a much longer spinnaker pole (40+ft), a new and improved rudder and myriads of other changes. Of course we also have a whole suit of brand new sails. This is our practice run for Transpac 2003!

Now in Turbo mode, we are finding Pegasus 77 to be awesome. On-board we have helmsmen from the top three Volvo teams: Illbruck, Assa Abloy and Amer Sports One. And they all are amazed at how Pegasus 77 goes. The consensus is that this is the dream boat and the dream size. A dozen good sailors can push around the clock, there are no moving parts (swinging keels), pumps and tubes (water ballast), the rigging is super-simple (masthead) and she is as light as can be. No compromises. The result: She planes in 17 knots of wind and just takes off skipping waves in 20 knots. In 16 knots of wind, with the waves we clock ourselves close to wind speed and in 23 knots we're doing 20 knots of boat speed. Unbelievable! Yet she can make it into every major Marina around the world. You can launch Pegasus 77 from pretty much any boat yard. It appears to all of us that bigger and more complex is not better. This Transpac 75 box rule is going make some of the most exciting boats in the world.

The North Eastern Pacific has to be the best place to sail in the world with the Southern Ocean. But it's much warmer and there is a fantastic destination: Honolulu. Pegasus 77 is just the perfect boat.

By daybreak, given the caliber of the helmsmen competing for my 27.0-knot speed record, I have mixed feelings: On one hand, I want us to go as fast as we can. On the other hand, I am proud to have my record still standing. In reality, I'd be happy to give up my little record for a few boat lengths on the race course. After all this could be as close as one could get to the downwind helmsman championship of the world: Zan Drejes, Jeff Madrigali, Richard Clarke, Freddy Loof, Mark Rudiger and others. As we went through the night watches, we were saying how Pegasus 77 in the same conditions as Illbruck established the 24 hour speed record with over 480 nautical miles could have averages 1 to 2 knots more. That does put a smile on our faces. Shark loves it because in his 12 year old mind, what is more important than speed and adrenaline?

At night there are sparkles everywhere, like magic. The first explorers thought that there was gold in the Pacific Ocean

Because I do the PictureMails, the only way that I get in the pictures is when I eat

Pegasus is in your cool shades Richard!

Shark Attack!

Pegasus 77 shows great numbers

Date: Monday, July 15th
Lat: 29 05 North
Lon: 135 13 West
Course over ground: 232 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 17 knots

The plan to accomplish the impossible, for David to beat Goliath in other words, for Pegasus 77 to beat Zephyrus and Mari-Cha boat for boat seems now remotely possible. That is because we did well in the last 24 hours. The numbers speak for themselves:

Date: 7-14

Boat	Run/Course
Pegasus	367nm/198
Mari-Cha	365nm/214
Zephyrus	364nm/213

Date: 7-15

Boat	Run/Course
Pegasus	353nm/231
Mari-Cha	332nm/231
Zephyrus	344nm/232

Yesterday we were able to travel more distance and dive south and today we essentially ran parallel tracks at a 231 bearing, 9 miles more than Zephyrus, 21 miles more than Mari-Cha. Now here it is plain and simple: The wind is now at 23 degrees and with this wind direction, we are ahead of our two competitors. But we know that the wind is going to shift right all the way to become easterly trade winds. If this happens before we gain more bearing on Zephyrus and Mari-cha, they will be able to jibe and find themselves ahead of us. But if this shift occurs after we gain some more bearing on them, then we're ahead.

We must now be very patient and continue to work hard with discipline. We are going to be waiting anxiously for each roll call. Of course, we know that the 30 sailors on-board Mari-Cha and the 20 sailors on-board Zephyrus will be at least as anxious as we are: They were expecting a two horse race and now they have to deal with a flying horse. Fly Pegasus fly!

At 1AM, we saw some big right shifts. All the way to 60 degrees. That is challenging as Zephyrus and Mari-Cha probably jibed down at us. We are sailing fast and the conditions are perfect: The ocean water temperature is now 68 degrees; although it is overcast, we can catch glimpses of the almost full moon as it sets early in the night, gently sinking on the horizon. This is a beautiful night of sailing. The whole team is pushing hard. I drove the boat for 10 hours today in increments of 1 and 2 hours. Every time that I get into my bunk to catch an hour or two of sleep, I see waves going by. It is like becoming part of the great Pacific Ocean. Quite a privilege.

Flying over the waves, down the North Pacific Trades.

Jibing all night

Date: Wednesday, July 17th
Lat: 26 45 North
Lon: 146 08 West
Course over ground: 256 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 15 knots

All night we jibed on every shift. This was a pitch-dark night as the moon set early. We executed each jibe like clockworks. Wind ranged from 18 to 26 knots. Jibing Pegasus 77 is a challenging process because our pole is excessively long to make it through the forestay triangle. So the first step is to roll the staysail, transfer the spinnaker tack to the bow, slide the 42 ft pole on the deck. Then pick a wave, start surfing, jibe the kite outside of the shrouds, then set the pole on the other board and transfer back and reset the staysail. We are getting fast at the whole cycle and can complete the jibe end-to-end in the dark in less than 7 minutes. By jibing all night, we were able to make little gains and more importantly avoid being pegged against the course lay lines. At 9 am, it was time to see what our competitors had been up to all day yesterday and all night. I'm still seeing waves when I take a nap as I steered Pegasus 77 for 9 hours in the last 24 hours. That makes for deep sleep amid the rumbling of grinders, winches as we surf down the huge swells. No need for earplugs.

A pleasant surprise

First, we noticed that Zephyrus kept on going and spent at least 90% of their time on starboard jibe. By the time of the position report, they were on the 75-degree lay line to the finish. They are going to have to jibe soon. However, right now for us the wind direction is in the low 50s. In addition, if so, they will lose most of the leverage that they had by being North on the right hand wind shift. If they keep on going they will be over standing, which means that they would start sailing extra distance to the mark. By contrast, Pegasus 77 is much more centered on the racecourse and we can continue playing shifts all the way to Honolulu while staying south where we believe that we will continue seeing more pressure. Zephyrus 86 is still ahead of Pegasus 77 by 30 miles after 1350 miles racing on the open ocean. That is about 2 hours ahead after 4.5 days of sailing. That is it. Would we exchange positions with them? Probably because they are still 30 miles ahead. However, we could not have gotten in that position in the first place because of their waterline advantage in the heavy reaching part of the race and we also probably don't want to be sailing in the same waters as Zephyrus 86 unless its blowing over 30 knots. So we played the cards that were were dealt in the best possible way so far and we are in many ways continuing to defy gravity. As for Mari-Cha, we gained 10 miles on them and we are definitely gaining by jibing on the shifts. They are not nimble enough to take advantage of the unusual shifty conditions that we are seeing on the great Pacific Ocean this year. Today, Pegasus 77 lived to fight another day and we are all working hard at brewing some more Pegasus Magic. It is a drag race to Honolulu!

First Tropicbird

Albatross with their huge wingspan and gliding abilities can just keep on going forever and ever. Not so the "Tropicbird". This smaller seabird needs to continuously flap its wings or risk falling out of the sky. This is now my 5th trans-Pacific race and every time, right half way between San Francisco and Honolulu, the first Tropic bird appears out of nowhere and circles our mast for 15 minutes, quaking along, getting everyone's attention. Then, as suddenly, the Tropicbird just disappears and remains the subject of conversations for the next several hours. This is one tough of a clever little bird with endless endurance, a quick little bird that would not let us take a picture of him. Very cool.

Flying fish meets 4 time world champion and Olympic medalist Freddy Loof

In Sweden, we'd smoke it and dip it in oil

Maybe the flying fish belongs in Doogie's strangely laced shoe?

Date: Thursday, July 18th
Lat: 26 38 North
Lon: 149 37 West
Course over ground: 220 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 15 knots

At sunset, we jibed on what could be a 500 lay line to Honolulu. Now its mostly port jibe. Unfortunately, it's pretty light, with winds between 16 and 19 knots most of the time. We were hoping for 25+ trades closer to the islands as we believe that we have an advantage in heavier surfing conditions. This is probably going to make it very tough to beat boat for boat Zephyrus 86. Nevertheless, we sure are going to try very hard until we cross the finish line. There are about 36 hours to go and they are going to be very intense.

After a long night jibing, the sleepless Jeff will pour as much Tabasco in your breakfast as you want

Squall-busting at sunset – In the front of the squall there is lots of wind, but in the back it is very light

Rudi,sleeping real hard before the very final stretch

The last 100 nautical miles, 22 30 north, 156 21 west

Date: Friday, July 19th
Lat: 22 50 North
Lon: 155 49 West
Course over ground: 232 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 13 knots

Last night was pretty much postcard perfect with the moon coming in and out of squall clouds, the big sky and the big start, 20-knot winds and nice waves. We were on 300-mile lay line coming from the north. We worked hard all night with lots of sail changes. We went back and forth between spinnaker and jib top reaching going through the whole inventory of spinnakers as the angles got tighter. The jib top is exceptionally fast and flexible when tight reaching and Pegasus 77 was nicely planing and skipping waves, all very impressive.

Where are we in the race?

As I write this report, we are 150 miles from the finish and we expect Zephyrus to finish about 8 hours ahead of us with Mari-Cha 5 hours ahead of us. At this pace, we should do well in corrected time. The whole team is very pleased and excited about our performance. Our goals were to get to Honolulu within less than 12 hours of Zephyrus and we think that we can pull this one off! There is still quite a bit of great sailing in front of us. Our goals seem within reach! Fly Pegasus fly!!!

100 miles to go!

This is the final 100 miles. We are about 7 hours out, maybe less, maybe more depending on the conditions. We're stoked. Half of the team is napping for a couple of hours to recover from a very intense night. We made 8 sail-spinnaker changes in 7 hours. And on a boat of the size of Pegasus 77, in the pitch black night, that is a huge effort.

The finish line is right by the Kaneohe Bay yacht club, one of the two nicest spots in the islands. (The other one being the Waikiki yacht club). We just had the 49er worlds in Kaneohe Bay. Of course the bay is not deep enough to sail Pegasus 77 directly to the dock, so we need to follow the channel that has been cut in the bay's coral. Fortunately, we sail Finns and Melges 24s in the bay, so we're pretty familiar. We know that there will be huge plates of fresh sushi and sliced chilled mangoes waiting for us. That makes us work even harder.

Aloha Pegasus!

In corrected time, Pegasus 77 easily scored a clear victory over both Zephyrus 86 and Mari-Cha 147. In fact once all was said and done, Pegasus 77's elapsed time was only 4 hours longer than Mari-Cha 147 and 7 hours longer than Zephyrus 86. That's an amazing result given the size differentials between the boats. Pacifc Cup 2002, was a great success and the best preparation for Transpac 2003 where we will be racing evenly matched competitors.

Pegasus 77 can smell the barn! Pushing real hard in the final stretch.