Double Barn Door winner to doublehanded racer

by Rich Roberts on 14 Jul 2007
Six of the 74 owner/skippers in this 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii picked their crews from a short list---a very short list. They're racing with only one other guy on the boat to trim sails, help set spinnakers, operate the radio, make sandwiches, clean any fish they might catch and take over completely when you desperately need a nap.

It's not necessarily that they can't afford to pay or provide for a full crew; most just prefer it that way.

Philippe Kahn, the software entrepreneur who created the camera phone, has raced other Transpacs with, as one once said, some of the best crews money can buy. His other Pegasus boats won the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time in 2001 and 2003, but he is doing this one doublehanded on an Open 50, Pegasus 101, with Richard Clarke, a Canadian member of Kahn's Pegasus Racing syndicate. They'll start Sunday at 1 p.m. PDT with the other biggest and fastest off Point Fermin in San Pedro.

Most of the remaining starters may be viewed up close at Rainbow Harbor, now Transpac's mainland home port. One of the premier local entries---Bob Lane's Medicine Man---will drop in early Sunday morning to participate in the spirited sendoff ceremonies at 10 a.m. Sunday.

'This is going to be a fun adventure,' Kahn said, with some trepidation.

Five other doublehanders are already at sea after the first two starts Monday and Thursday, and one team---Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain on Brilliant from Murrietta, Calif.---was leading Division 6 on the fifth day out. Another---septuagenarians Mike Abraham and Phillip Rowe on Tango from Newport Beach---were in fourth place in Division 5, perhaps buoyed by a crowd singing a happy 70th birthday to Rowe on their way out of Rainbow Harbor Thursday.

The other doublehanders are Allen Lehman Sr. and Jr. on Narrow Escape in Division 5, Steen Moller and Bob MacDonald on X-Dream in Division 6 and tuba playing siblings Bob and Mike Webster on their catamaran The Minnow.

In Friday morning's position reports Brilliant was as close to Honolulu as anybody, tied with Ho'okolohe at 1,919 nautical miles to go, with Cesar de Saracho's Enchilado---both in Aloha A---only one mile behind. However, the early positions were still too tricky to project final finishing positions with much certainty; boats to the south generally trailed in the standings but were sailing faster and could be gaining leverage for their eventual turns toward the islands when---if?---they find the trade winds.

For example, the boats that logged the most miles over the 24 hours preceding Friday's morning roll call tended to be low in the standings. Chip McGeath's Santa Cruz 52 Kokopelli 2 had the best day of any boat with 180 miles at 10.6 knots, but Cirrus, Traveler and Lady Liberty ranked last in Aloha B, despite sailing much farther than the leaders.

This will be Kahn's 10th race across the Pacific, so he knows the drill well.

'I think the weather systems may be more complex than they have ever been,' he said. 'The [fastest] track today goes right through the [Pacific] High. Some routes even want you to go north, while others want you to sail minimum distance. Usually, that option leads to challenging light conditions.'

That's what Kahn and Clarke must deal with in their quest for Transpac's doublehanded record: 10 days 4 hours 4 minutes 19 seconds by Howard Gordon and Jay Crum, also on an Open 50, Etranger, in 2001. Open 50s, with canting keels and huge dagger boards projecting from their cabin tops when not employed, are often sailed singlehanded, but even with two crew they're a handful.

'This has truly turned into a personal Everest,' Kahn said. 'Doublehanded is very intense because you want to push all the time, as opposed to singlehanded when you naturally throttle down. Literally, I'm a big guy for training to get up that mast, but we're doing it. Heck, I even have to go up the mast for rig checks. So it’s the full package. I'd never spent much time up the mast before.

'For now we are a bit slower than the polars [speed projections] that we were told by the designer. These boats love to reach and you can’t be afraid of sailing extra miles. Yet doublehanded, you really can’t sail the same ways as a crew. When we sail with five we just whip jibes and tacks. With just two it’s a totally different story. Jibing is a major move that needs to be planned 30 minutes in advance and carefully executed. Over 28 knots it’s a real challenge.'

Clarke is a world-class Finn sailor so he's used to sailing shorthanded.

'We figure we'll lose 30 miles overall to the fully crewed boats just doing tacks, jibes and sail changes,' he said.

More information: www.transpacificyc.org