Seven weeks of hard sailing pays for Cheyenne

by Stuart Radnofsky on 29 Mar 2004 1110 GMT - 654 miles north/north-east Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil: Still driving hard after 50 days on their official Round The World Sailing record attempt, American skipper Steve Fossett and his crew of 12 on board the maxi-catamaran Cheyenne crossed the Equator at 08:13 am today (Sunday 28 March GMT) and re-entered the northern hemisphere.

Seven weeks of hard sailing, plus a powerful 543 mile run over the past 24 hours leaves them with an imposing lead of more than three days over the current global record of 64 days 8 hours 37 minutes in 2002 set by French Skipper Bruno Peyron on the catamaran Orange.

Fossett and Cheyenne are now on Day 51 of their RTW attempt, and hope to reach the official start-finish line between France and the UK in a further ten day’s time.

Steve Fossett was pleased at today's milestone, but aware that the task is not yet complete: ‘We have 22,000 miles behind us and just 3200 to go to the finish. We will sail it hard, but at the same time try to control the risk of breaking anything which would stop our attempt.’

This voyage has already been marked by several breakages - and extraordinary repairs en route by Cheyenne's experienced international crew. A broken forestay was fixed on day 19 off South Africa. The track holding the mainsail on the mast tore off just before Cape Horn.

‘The creative ability of these guys to make major repairs without stopping will account for our success if we break this record,’ Fossett said.

Steve Fossett is best known for achieving the First Solo Balloon Flight Around the World in July 2001 - after six spectacular attempts.

He is also, of course, an accomplished sailor who has set 21 official world records since 1993, including the Trans Atlantic Record from New York to England in an astounding 4 days 17 hours (2001) and twice setting the 24 hour record of sailing (1999, 2001), but the Round The World Sailing record is the target that still drives him:

‘This would cap my sailing career. The Round the World record is the most important of all. And to be the first American to hold this record in almost 20 years would be another bonus.’

Team meteorologist Ken Campbell, of Commanders Weather, has estimated that Cheyenne could finish as early as 1800 GMT on April 7 (60-1/2 days). The finish is a north to south line from Ouessant Island France to the UK landmark, 'The Lizard', in Cornwall - where Fossett and his crew started just over 50 days ago.

The last American attempt on the global sailing record was the successful solo voyage of Dodge Morgan, who sailed around the world from Bermuda in 150 days in 1985-86 on American Promise.
His record was broken in 1990 by Titouan Lamazou of France in 109 days.

Since then, the RTW record has been successively reduced to the present 64 day target by the great multihull skippers Bruno Peyron (France) in 1993, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) & Sir Peter Blake (NZL) in 1994, Olivier de Kersauson (France) in 1997 and Bruno Peyron again in 2002.

http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/roundnonstop.html

For detailed maps, images, stories etc. go to: www.fossettchallenge.com

All of Steve Fossett's record-setting adventures and challenges are supported by Michelob ULTRA, the new low-carbohydrate premium beer from Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer

Supporting Cheyenne and crew on the RTW record attempt are NOBELTEC Admiral electronic charting solutions and MUSTO Performance clothing