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Star-Bulletin Sports


Thursday, July 12, 2001


[TRANSPAC]



Bull crosses line
in time to keep
Pegasus from sweep


From staff and wire reports

Bull prevented Pegasus from sweeping Transpacific Yacht Race honors yesterday when crossing the Diamond Head finish line at 3:49 a.m.

Seth Radow's new Sydney 40 claimed victory on corrected handicap time in the 41st biennial race. The honor recognizes the crew that theoretically sailed its boat nearest to its potential.

Philippe Kahn's 75-foot Pegasus finished Monday to claim the race's Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time but owed Bull about 65 hours in corrected time. Bull had to finish by 5:20 a.m. yesterday and made it with 1 hour 32 minutes 8 seconds to spare, with its finish illuminated by a searchlight from the Coast Guard station.

Pegasus' elapsed time was 8 days 2 hours 34 minutes 3 seconds. Bull, with a one-day head start in Division 4, had an elapsed time of 10 days 17 hours 49 minutes 19 seconds. Bull's average speed for the 2,225 nautical miles was 8.6 knots, compared to 11.4 for Pegasus.

Other finishers yesterday included Ragtime, the 1973 and '75 Barn Door winner under charter from Scott Zimmer to Maui resident Trisha Steele and Owen Minney of Newport Beach. The boat was sixth among the eight in Division 2.

Ragtime still made history. It shares the record for most Transpacs with Merlin -- now Merlin's Reata -- at 12. Steele is the third generation of her family to compete in the race.

Radow, a 37-year-old investment counselor, was met at the dock in Waikiki by his wife Stacey and their six-week-old daughter Leah.

"I got the boat on the 26th (of May) and the baby on the 29th," Radow said.

Bull is the smallest boat to win Transpac overall since Notorious, an Olson 40, in 1989. It sailed with a crew of seven: Radow, navigator Steve Steiner, Lee Lewis, Rick Valdes, Vince Valdes, Joe Dervin and Mark van Gessel.

Their most serious problem was a shattered mast track where the spinnaker pole is mounted. Rick Valdes repaired it twice.

Seven boats remained at sea, all but one in Bull's Division 4.



Transpac Web site


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