HONOLULU -- Sailing under a full moon and nearly five hours in front of its rival, Pegasus 77 won its second Barn Door trophy early Monday for fastest elapsed time in the Transpacific Yacht Race.

The 77-foot sloop, skippered by software developer Phillipe Kahn, crossed the Diamond Head finish line at 3:15 a.m., 7 days, 16 hours, 31 minutes and 17 seconds after leaving Los Angeles.

The Barn Door trophy, a 3-by-4-foot slab of carved koa wood, goes to the fastest boat in the 2,559-mile race.

It was the fourth fastest time ever for the race, but nearly five hours after rival Pyewacket's record of 7:11:41:27 in a windier 1999 race. Two years ago, Pegasus 77 won in 8:02:34:3.

"Records aren't something you can control," Kahn said. "Either the weather was going to cooperate or not. We did break a record for the daily run, and what was interesting about that is we did it without a lot of wind."

Roy E. Disney's 75-foot sloop Pyewacket finished in 7 days, 21 hours, 18 minutes and 1 second, the eighth fastest ever.

"We led them past Catalina (Island) by a mile, but then we went right and they went left, and they were right and we were wrong," Disney said.

The next morning a position report showed Pegasus 77 some 100 miles south of Pyewacket.

"We were surprised how low they went the second day," said Peter Isler, Pyewacket's navigator for the race.

Mark Rudiger, Pegasus 77's navigator, said the original plan was to stay near Pyewacket, but then the Pegasus 77 crew decided to sail their own race that began July 6.

"It was (wind strength) pressure versus angle, and I've learned the hard way over the years that the first half of this race you have to go for the pressure and the second half you can start working on angle," Rudiger said. "So I just tell the guys, 'Send the boat the fastest way it can go.' Speed rules."

Although four Aloha class boats, which started five days earlier, finished ahead of Pegasus 77 by as much as 15 hours, their elapsed times were days slower.