450 miles for Mari Cha IV on Day One of Transatlantic record attempt

by The Sail-World Team on 4 Oct 2003 Robert Millers Mari Cha IV reeled off a 450 mile first day in her transatlantic record attempt

Launched less than two months ago, the all carbon fibre 140 foot super-maxi is a purpose built lightweight racer and it seems that she will smash records everywhere when weather systems cooperate.

The current Transatlantic record of eight days, 20 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds, held by Bernard Stamm onboard Armour Lux set in 2001, at an average speed of 13.7 knots.

The 2925 nm passage is from Ambrose lighthouse (just off NY) to Lizard point (off the south west coast of England).

To break the 8 day barrier, Mari Cha IV needs to sail an average of 366 nm per day, and average a speed of 15.3 knots.

On her first day she was almost 100 miles ahead of record pace.

Here is the latest update from Helmsman Mike
Sanderson

'Well it's coming up to 22 hours since we went charging past Ambrose light yesterday afternoon , one of the big hurdles when attempting this record is getting out of New York and we have certainly done that with a hiss and a roar!!!

The breeze just built all afternoon until by the time the sun went down and turned into a very dark night we where running in 30 gusting 40 knots of wind, often hitting speeds in excess of thirty knots.

Everything went very smoothly, probably the most stressful part about steering the boat last night (apart from a couple of hairy Gybes in 30 plus knots) was coping with the funny looks that you would get from the crew when you went below twenty five!!

Anyway to do a 450 plus mile first day point to point including a few gybes and a couple of sail changes is certainly a fantastic way to start.'

After 26 hours, the super maxi is 503 miles down the course. Clearly Miller's boat has the legs, now the question is the weather.