| Philippe
fears Transpac boats have outgrown Transpac Row
By Rich Roberts
No boat owner has won three consecutive
Barn Doors in the Transpacific Yacht Race, and it's
conditional whether Philippe Kahn will try to be
the first.
"We'll be back," Kahn
said, "as long as we can fit into Transpac
Row."
That may be a squeeze in 2005. The
bar for the monohull with the fastest elapsed time
in the 2,225-nautical mile race from Los Angeles
to Honolulu will rise to the bigger, faster maxZ86s.
Kahn's boat, the "maxi sled" Pegasus 77,
was being advertised for sale well before the latest
Transpac (asking price: $1.45 million) when it scored
its second successive victory.
But a maxZ86, with CBTF (canting
bulb twin foil) technology, draws 15 feet of water,
which is deeper than Transpac Row in the Ala Wai
Yacht Harbor at Waikiki Beach.
And if it won't fit, Kahn feels
there is no point in building one.
"We believe any boat that sails
Transpac should fit in the harbor," he said.
"With their draft, none of the 86s will even
fit in most harbors. That's not good for the spirit
of the race."
Transpac Row, a long, single line
of slips where private boats obligingly surrender
their choice locations once every two years to make
room for Transpac visitors, is a long-standing tradition
of the race. Each boat is met with a luau welcome
upon arrival, no matter what time of day or night,
and a community atmosphere grows as each finisher
checks in.
Transpac organizers stipulated two
years ago that they would include a maxZ86 class
in 2005 if a minimum of three committed to compete.
That condition is currently met. Roy E. Disney's
fourth Pyewacket and Hasso Plattner's latest Morning
Glory are nearing completion in New Zealand and
Australia, respectively. The first maxZ86---Bob
McNeil's Zephyrus V---had been sailing for a year
before he sold it recently to the DeVos family to
add to its Windquest line, with Transpac still in
mind.
But where will they park in Hawaii?
Kahn offered a solution: incorporate
a lifting keel system into the CBTF concept developed
by Dynayacht of San Diego so "you can park
the boat in the usual harbors," he said.
"I would build a boat to the
[rating] limits of the 2005 and 2007 if that boat
is built with a lifting keel---and as long as everybody
is required to do so."
That could be a problem. Jim Pugh
of San Diego's (John) Reichel/Pugh team that designed
the boats said a maxZ86 can be built in 11 months
and that a lifting/canting bulb was feasible.
But Disney said, "It would
be too late [for Disney and Plattner] to do anything
like that."
As alternatives, Disney suggested
that the CBTF boats might raft up in deeper water
just outside Transpac Row.
That might work. Eric Kato of the
Ala Wai harbormaster's office said that while the
depth along what is designated as "500 Row"
(a.k.a. Transpac Row) is 11 to 13 feet at median
tide, the depth at the end of the adjacent 800 Row
is 16 feet. Honolulu tides run only two feet or
a bit more, but there may not be enough surface
room on 800 Row for more than one or two 86-foot
boats.
Otherwise, Kato said, the maxZ86s
could anchor off Waikiki Beach or, as a last resort,
go on to the new Ko Olina Resort and Marina 20 miles
past Waikiki.
Kahn indicated that if the next
Transpac doesn't work out for him, he'll devote
his sailing energies entirely to his one-design
fleet. He has raced Farr 40s, Mumm 30s, Finns and
Melges 24s and recently bought two Stars. He plans
to compete in the Melges 24 Worlds and the Star
North Americans in San Francisco this fall and will
sail a Farr 40 in the Big Boat Series on the Bay
in September.
"We'd love to defend [the Barn
Door] again," he said, "but we're not
tied to one boat. Most of our program in Pegasus
Racing is one-design."
Kahn, a software developer with
homes in Hawaii and Northern California, not only
has recruited a world-class crew to sail Pegasus
77 but also hires top coaches and crew for himself
and his 13-year-old son Samuel, a.k.a. "Shark,"
who campaigns a 29er skiff.
Mark Reynolds, a two-time Star world
champion and double Olympic gold medallist, has
been sailing with Kahn in Hawaii since Transpac.
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