LOA (ft.): 52
Draft (ft): 10.5 Beam (ft): 14.5
Hull color: White w/ Blue Graphics
Yacht Club: Waikiki Yacht Club and St Francis Yacht Club
Builder: Goetz Custom Boats
Year launched: June 2005

Skipper: Philippe Kahn

Navigator: Peter Tans
Watch Captain 1: Mark Christensen
Watch Captain 2: Jeff Madrigali
Crew: Bob Wylie, Darren Jones, Casey Smith, Kyle Gundersen, Adrian Stead, Justin Clougher

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.
 

Getting ready to launch Pegasus 52

Getting ready to launch Pegasus 52

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 you don’t feel the speed, you experience it on the electronic instruments. On a small boat, you get wet, you feel the wind and the wave. You know you’re going fast even with your eyes shut.

I write this as we just wrapped up a last minute Fullpower business meeting, I’m going to be sailing the great Pacific Ocean for the next 8 days. Sonia and I will be flying to Long Beach for a great team dinner with the boys. That’s always the best, the team dinner before the race. There’s a bit of magic and anticipation. I find that with the smaller boat and the smaller crew it’s even more so as there are less electronics (no navigation station in the Pegasus 52, it would be too heavy and slow us down and there is so little freeboard in the boat that one crawls down below. You are either outside or lying down in a bunk,…. ) and each team member needs to pull more of their own weight. Unfortunately, Shark won’t be with us this time as he will be on the other side of the pond as he is sailing the 49er North Americans at the Gorge… he’s a member of the US Sailing Team now (At 15…. I’m so proud of him…) and that conflicted with Transpac….

We think of ourselves as from Honolulu. We always race for the Waikiki yacht Club and Honolulu is our main home (our favorite). Unfortunately there is not much TP-52 racing in Hawaii yet besides the Waikiki Offshore Series, which we are doing, so most of our TP-52 racing will be on the East Coast or the West Coast. In other words, we are a Hawaii entry! Our slip is in front of the Waikiki yacht Club. That’s home! So the “white Flying Horse” can start smelling the barn…..!

July 17th, 2005

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. Pegasus 52 is small for ten of us and we're going to be very busy sailing this speedster all the way to Honolulu. Our goal is to beat the record set by Beau Geste in a similar boat in 2003. Over and out for the next 8 days and nights! Fly Pegasus Fly!

The Pegasus July 16th crew dinner