Gitana 13 halves Taipei-Hong Kong record

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia/Gitana Team on 1 Jun 2008 As far as the visibility went, it wasn’t the greatest welcome to Hong Kong (and the photographer didn’t rate the weather too highly either), but the big blue Gitana 13 arrived like a ghost at twilight, quickly and quietly, passing Shek O Rock at 1919 hrs 32 sec to set a new record of 24h 46m 59s for the trip from Taipei.

It was a downwind trip all the way, gybing down the Taiwan Strait, with the boat rarely dropping below 20 knots of boatspeed – a rather better performance than Ellen MacArthur’s ‘Asian Record Circuit’ effort of over two days – and improving the best recorded time, snatched from B&Q by a Jeanneau 47 in December 2006, of 2d 15h 40m 42s by more than 1 day 14 hrs. As the French say, 'Record, battu!'

Gitana 13 was able to benefit from steady northeasterly breeze right down the 465 mile course, averaging around 25-30 knots but climbing to 35 knots during the course of the night.

Conditions were favourable for enabling them to slip along gently downwind, though around ten gybes punctuated the journey. Skipper Lionel Lemonchois said dockside 'A series of gybes were necessary according to the wind shifts, and there were six of us on deck permanently to deal with the manœuvres.

'Prior to our departure from Taipei, the grib files forecast that the wind would clock round at the end, leading to some close-hauled sailing for the last few miles. On the water though, things were a little different: the wind did indeed clock round but less so than forecast' reported the skipper a few minutes after crossing the finish line.

He added, 'We would have liked to have completed the course in less than a day… however the big seas in the strait and the freshening wind at this point forced us to be very careful. Last night the wind climbed to 35 knots and we were under two reefs and solent. As ever, we saw a fair bit of shipping in the area, with a lot of fishing boats. This was a wet sprint but also quick and efficient.'

Like all good Frenchmen, the Gitana 13 crew quickly headed off to their hotel 'before the restaurant closed'. The boat will now be stationed for a while in Hong Kong carrying out corporate hospitality duties for the LCF Rothschild Group.

Talk of a tilt at the Hong Kong to London ‘Tea Race’ is being hinted at…