A FLURRY OF BROKEN RECORDS

Four oceangoing records found themselves falling by the wayside in quick succession this past summer—two on the Atlantic, two on the Pacific.

In the Atlantic, the first to fall was the course record for the classic 363-mile Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean Race, which the 68ft Prospector completed in a miserly 28 hours 28 minutes, shaving two hours off the record set by Bella Pita in 2011.

The other Atlantic record to fall was the solo transatlantic, with French sailing legend Francis Joyon making the trip from Ambrose Light off New York Harbor to England’s Lizard in a mere 5 days 2 hours and 7 minutes aboard his maxi-tri IDEC Sport.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, the ORMA 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe and famed maxi-monohull Comanche both set new course records in the Transpac: with the former completing the 2,225-mile passage from Los Angeles, California, to Hawaii’s Diamond Head in 4 days 6 hours and 32 minutes, and the later doing the same in 5 days 1 hour and 55 minutes.

“It’s amazing to be on boat that can go this fast. Prospector is one of the best monohulls in the world,” said Larry Landry, who co-owns the boat, which sails out of Shelter Island, New York, along with Paul McDowell and David Siwicki.

“We didn’t talk about it on board, so I didn’t know until we crossed the finish line this evening that we had broken the record,” said McDowell, adding that with fair winds out of the south and southwest the conditions couldn’t have been better.

For more on the Marblehead-Halifix, which will also be featured in SAIL’s October issue, visit marbleheadtohalifax.com. For more on the Transpac, visit 2017.transpacyc.com.— AC