American duo attempt Clipper record

Rich Wilson and Bill Biewenga tackle New York-Melbourne record on trimaran

A New York-to-Australia clipper ship sailing record set nearly a century and a half ago will be challenged later this year by a 53-foot trimaran manned by two veteran American sailors. The 14,000-mile voyage will complement Australia's 150th anniversary observance of the Down Under discovery of gold in 1851.

In mid-September, Rich Wilson and Bill Biewenga will embark from Chelsea Piers in Manhattan aboard the Nigel Irens-designed trimaran Great American II bound southeast for Melbourne, Australia.

In 1855-56, the American clipper ship Mandarin completed the trip in a record 69 days, 14 hours, sailing from New York southward through the Atlantic, around the African continent's Cape of Good Hope, and on through the Indian Ocean to Melbourne, capital city of Australia's state of Victoria.

Back then Melbourne was the destination for thousands of eager fortune hunters from around the world. Those from America booked passage on American clipper ships, the speediest vessels then plying the seas. As had happened in California two years before, gold had been discovered in 1851 just a few miles west of Melbourne in a region that is now Ballarat, Victoria's largest inland city.

"This will be the second time, actually the third, that I've gone after a clipper ship sailing record set during a gold rush," said Wilson, a life-long sailor and founder of the global educational web site sitesALIVE!, based in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1993, Wilson and his co-skipper Biewenga sailed Great American II from San Francisco around treacherous Cape Horn on the tip of South America and then north to Boston, in 69 days and 20 hours, breaking the venerable record set in 1853 for the 15,000-mile voyage by the clipper ship Northern Light.

An earlier attempt by Wilson and then co-skipper Steve Pettengill, in 1990, ended in disaster when the original Great American trimaran capsized and was lost in high seas off the west coast of South America, some 400 miles short of Cape Horn. In one of the great rescue stories of modern seafaring lore, the crew of the giant container ship New Zealand Pacific, which quickly responded to Great American's satellite distress signals, plucked the two men from their stricken vessel. Ironically, the rescue took place on the holiday Americans traditionally give thanks for their good fortune, Thanksgiving Day

"This 'gold rush' voyage will coincide with the celebration in Victoria of the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Ballarat. When we sail into Port Phillip Bay, Bill and I will be looking forward to joining the party," said Wilson, who lives with his wife, Lesley, in the seaport town of Rockport, north of Boston.

With his early voyages, Wilson proved the concept that real life adventures could be translated into solid educational fare for use in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. A former high school math teacher himself, as well as a talented tale-spinner, Wilson was invited to several Greater Boston schools to recount his dramatic initial voyage and rescue.

"The enthusiasm of the kids and their pointed questions confirmed our belief that there was a place for learning adventures in the classroom," Wilson recalls. "Their excitement also convinced me to make another try at the Cape Horn sailing record."

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