Tuesday, July 3, 2001
When the sun broke over the western Pacific Ocean yesterday morning, the crews of Pegasus, Chance and Pyewacket found tranquil seas and saw ... Pegasus, Chance and Pyewacket. Transpac fleet finds
calm seas, light windsStar-Bulletin wire services
The three Division I yachts were within three miles of one another, drifting in winds too light for the crews to be thinking of setting a record in the 41st Transpacific Yacht Race.
The largest yachts in the fleet had sailed only about 90 miles in the 20 hours since Sunday's start, an average of 4.8 knots.
Philippe Kahn's 75-foot Pegasus was farthest west, about a mile ahead of Bob McNulty's 74-foot Chance, with Roy E. Disney's 73-foot Pyewacket to the north another mile back.
Aboard Pegasus is Kahn's 11-year-old son Samuel, who may be the youngest crew member ever in Transpac history. Stephanie Baker Elliott was 12 when she sailed on her mother's boat Quascilla in 1957.
Meanwhile, Bill Allan's LawnDart, a Fast 40 from Nanaimo, B.C., dropped out because of trouble with its generating system and returned to Long Beach, Calif., leaving 32 boats in the race.
In Division II, Grand Illusion, skippered by Maui's James McDonnell, was just ahead of David Janes' J-Bird III out of California.
Other division leaders as of yesterday's roll call were:
Cantata (Division III); Bull (Division IV), Willow Wind (Aloha Division A) and Stardust (Aloha Division B).
On the Web: Which boats are making the boldest moves south? Who's hanging too long in the north? Who's running the rhumb line? Follow your favorite Transpac boats across the Pacific with the tracking chart on the official Web site at www.transpacificyc.org.