Pegasus victorious in Transpac

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Fitting for a yacht named Pegasus, a flying stretch run provided the margin of victory in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race.

Pegasus, passed Koko Head before reaching the Honolulu skyline, at the Transpacific Yacht Race yesterday. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Skippered by Philippe Kahn, Pegasus completed the 2,225 nautical mile course from Los Angeles to Diamond Head, O'ahu, in 8 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes, 3 seconds.

The biennial race is considered one of the most prestigious long-distance races in the world.

"Pegasus is a beautiful, mythical white flying horse, and I thought it would make a great image for a super-fast boat flying over the waves," said Kahn, who is also the owner of the yacht. "That certainly held true."

Indeed, Pegasus defeated two-time defending Transpac champ Pyewacket by pulling away in the final two days.

More than 1,000 miles into the race, Pegasus, Pyewacket and Chance were within sight of each other.

"When you think about that, it really is amazing," Kahn said. "We were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but we were still right next to each other."

In truth, it was exactly where Kahn wanted to be.

To understand his motivation is to understand the success of Pyewacket and its owner, Roy E. Disney. The 73-foot Pyewacket set the course record in 1997, then set it again in '99, when it finished in 7 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes.

So in constructing Pegasus, Kahn hired Reichel Pugh, the same designer of Pyewacket.

"We didn't want a better boat, we just wanted a boat that could compete," said Kahn, a computer software developer who maintains part-time residence in Honolulu. "We didn't want to take a risk of designing a boat that was inferior.

"We felt like if we had a boat as fast as the others, we had a team that could out-sail the others."

Having enough ocean spray, Pegasus skipper Philippe Kahn celebrates win with champaign spray. yesterday. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We had light air, we had heavy air, we had big waves, we had small waves," he added. "And this boat delivered completely every time."

Even when Chance forged ahead of Pegasus by about eight miles at the 1,300-mile checkpoint, Kahn stayed on course.

"We were all on the same course, dueling," he said. "It would have been a big mistake to try something drastic, so we stayed right with the others, and just worked twice as hard to pass them."

Eventually, Pegasus passed both Pyewacket and Chance and never relented. The largest margin of distance between the boats came at the finish.

Hard working crew

Jeff Madrigali, one of 13 sailors aboard Pegasus, was on the fastest Transpac yacht for the fourth time. He said: "It was a really fast boat, but it wasn't fast enough to win on its own. We really had to work for it."

Kahn assembled a crew that consisted of sailors from around the world. Even the youngest crew member, Kahn's 11-year-old son Samuel, had to pitch in.

"It was hard," said Samuel Kahn. "They made me do pretty much everything — grind, steered a bit, trimmed."

He even had to use the yacht's makeshift toilet — the Pacific Ocean. After the yacht's toilet broke during the first day of the race, crew members were forced to "go" off the side of the yacht for the rest of the race.

"It ended up being pretty funny because we won," Kahn said. "But when it broke right at the beginning, I thought maybe it was a bad sign."

Kahn, who splits time between Honolulu and Santa Cruz, Calif., said he will list Pegasus' hailing port as the Waikiki Yacht Club.

Pyewacket arrived at Diamond Head 1 hour, 2 minutes, 56 seconds after Pegasus.

"The only time we were out of sight (of Pegasus) was (yesterday)," Disney said.

Chance arrived at the finish line 1 hour, 31 minutes, 26 seconds behind Pyewacket.

All three boats were entered in the Division 1 class for the fastest yachts in the fleet.

Pegasus has already secured first-place trophies for fastest overall time and fastest corrected time (based on handicapped times) in Division I. The only drama remaining is the fastest overall corrected time (smaller boats in the other divisions are given faster times after finishing to compensate for size differences).

Bull, a 41-foot yacht in Division 4, has yet to finish but is the only entry with a shot at beating Pegasus on corrected time. Several other smaller boats are expected to arrive throughout the rest of this week.

Notes: In a July 1 article, The Advertiser quoted a Waikiki Yacht Club spokesman saying the large yachts in the Transpacific Yacht Race cost as much as $5 million. According to Bill Lee, one of the leading designers and builders of the 50s and 70s, the cost for a brand new large yacht is around $3 million.