Big Cat Escapes New York!

As this ‘Lectronic Latitude was posted, the 110-ft catamaran Gitana 13 was blasting southeast down the Atlantic, five days into a nonstop record attempt at the 14,000-mile Route de l’Or: the ‘route of gold’ from New York to San Francisco. After a bumpy start — the boat was sailing double reefed for the first few days in shifty winds and choppy seas — G-13 is currently riding the tradewinds southeast under full sail, gobbling up the Atlantic ocean at the rate of 26+ knots for the last 24 hours.

As noted in last week’s ‘Lectronic, Gitana 13 (built in 2001 as Innovation Explorer for The Race) left New York last Wednesday. The record she is attempting to break is currently held by Yves Parlier, whose Open 60 Aquitaine Innovations covered the route in 1998’s The Gold Race in 57 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes. The multihull record, set in 1989 by Georgs Kolesnikov’s 60-ft trimaran Great American, is 76 days, 23 hours, 20 minutes. By the way, all these ‘gold’ references harken back to the days when sailing ships delivered gold seekers to California from the east. The best of the best back then was the 229-ft clipper Flying Cloud, whose 1851 mark of 89 days, 21 hours stood for more than 130 years.

Assuming no breakage or other delays, G-13 and her 10-man crew should have no problems annihilating all these marks. If all goes as planned, the big cat and her 10-man crew are expected to arrived under the Golden Gate on or about February 20.

Additional good news is that you can now follow this adventure online. When she left, our only information contact was a Bay Area sailor who knew skipper Lionel Lemonchois. Now the Gitana website finally has caught up with the boat. There are maps, log entries, a neat video of her leaving New York and more. Check it all out at www.gitana-team.com/en/gitana10/homepage.asp.