Markus Moser’s Pegasus 50 Lifgun is the winner of the Ostar 2022. The sailor was the first to complete the solo crossing of the Atlantic on board his sailboat, covering the 6,046 kilometres in twenty-one days, six hours and twenty-five seconds and crossing the finish line last Sunday, 5 June.
The Ostar (an acronym for “Original Star”) is a tough regatta reserved for sailboats with a single-person crew, and has been held every four years since 1960, starting in the city of Plymouth (Great Britain) and finishing in Newport (USA). Very few sailors in the world are capable of tackling this solo crossing: sailing in the North Atlantic Ocean is extremely difficult, regardless of the season, and requires the ability to cover many nautical miles in stretches of sea subject to frequent storms and hurricanes, as well as icebergs (the Ostar also crosses the famous spot where the Titanic sank due to a collision with an iceberg). Not least, the sailors have to endure temperatures of around 5 degrees Celsius for about half of their journey, struggling against very high waves that flood the decks of their boats with water.
Finishing a regatta like the Ostar requires not only to be a long-experienced sailor, but also to have the adequate physical and mental preparation needed to tackle a solo ocean crossing and, above all, to be able to count on a reliable and comfortable boat. Just like Markus Moser’s Lifgun, the Pegasus 50 that the Slovenian yard Pegasus Yacht has designed to be a safe fast cruiser even for this type of extreme sailing experience. The Pegasus 50 is in fact a sailboat designed to be single-handled and boasts ocean “Category A” certification to withstand winds in excess of 40 knots and waves over four metres high. The Pegasus 50’s ballast percentage is also higher than other boats in the same category.
Even though it is
a boat designed to be sailed solo, the Pegasus 50 is still designed for the comfort of an entire crew. The living space inside the hull is in fact very large, and the cockpit and saloon, which are interconnected so that one can easily move from one area to another, offer great comfort and excellent visibility over the sea. Pegasus Yacht has also paid great attention to safety, designing a well-protected cockpit and sturdy stanchions, as well as carefully testing every single aspect of the boat.
