Hong Kong to New York Record

by John Reed on 29 May 2003 The route from Hong Kong to New York has been established as a new WSSR World Record by the performance put up by Great American II sailed by Americans Rich Wilson and Rich du Moulin in a claimed time of 72 days 21 hours 11 minutes and 38 seconds (which has yet to be ratified by the WSSR Council).

As is now common for all records starting or finishing in New York, the recognised line is drawn due South from Ambrose Light and the time recorded here will be used for the WSSR Hong Kong to New York record.

As the original 'benchmark' time, set by the extreme clipper ship Sea Witch in the China tea trade in 1849 (74 days, 14 hours) was timed at a finish off the Statue of Liberty, the WSSR Commissioner in New York, Janet Hellman, arranged for a secondary time to be recorded there in order to establish that the Sea Witch voyage record had been broken.

This is a preliminary announcement by the WSSR and we will publish the ratified times as soon as possible.