Mari Cha fires her afterburners

Robert Miller's giant schooner now peeling off the miles

Time GMT	Lat	Long	COG	SOG	Av speed	DTF	24hr
Sat 4th Oct 03 at 20:24	43 29.80 ' N	55 54.80 ' W	27	14.6	13.86	2078.1	303.62
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 00:00	44 15.80 ' N	55 05.16 ' W	42	18.2	12.83	2024.77	265.43
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 04:30	45 12.68 ' N	53 42.84 ' W	42	18.4	17.12	1946.87	292.31
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 08:30	46 10.44 ' N	52 25.20 ' W	45	19.6	15.7	1873.14	314.5
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 12:34	47 17.52 ' N	51 15.12 ' W	37	21.8	17.1	1802.39	348.05
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 16:34	48 17.80 ' N	49 46.36 ' W	42	21.6	17.22	1724.9	393.26
Sun 5th Oct 03 at 20:34	49 16.16 ' N	48 10.56 ' W	52	20.2	17.44	1646.11	431.99

Robert Miller's maxi-schooner Mari Cha IV this morning is approaching the halfway mark in her record breaking attempt on the 2,925 mile New York to Lizard passage across the Atlantic.

Most of Saturday was spent crossing a trough with not only their speed much reduced, occasionally averaging only 12 knots, but also heading southeast on the unfavoured tack. Saturday evening, finally through the trough, they tacked back to the northnortheast and Sunday saw them fully launched into southerlies associated with the western extremity of the high pressure system currently dominating the weather in the mid-north Atlantic. They crossed the Grand Banks and mid-afternoon passed 35 miles from Newfoundland's southeastern corner.

"We are doing great. We're averaging 20.5-21 knots," said Jef d'Etiveaud, Mari Cha IV's project manager told thedailysail.

Over the next three days the high pressure looks set to remain reasonably stationary with some compression of the isobars to the north due to low pressure systems both to the northeast and northwest. "It is pretty much a perfect picture for us," says d'Etiveaud.

However Mari Cha IV to have to route themselves around the high pressure as if they stuck to the great circle they will find themselves sailing too close to the high's centre, where they risk running into lighter winds and sailing broader (ie slower) angles.

"We are trying to go around the high," explains d'Etiveaud who is sharing navigation duties on board with the legendary Mike Quilter. "It is a question of keeping in good winds to get around the high while covering as little miles as possible - to stick reasonably close to the great circle, but still in the good wind band which will be around 51degN." D'Etiveaud says that ideally they are looking for winds of 25-30 knots. "Mike Quilter and I are pretty happy with where we are going right now."

Aside from the west-east transatlantic monohull record, owner Robert Miller and his crew are also hoping to break illbruck's monohull 484 mile 24 hour record - and, ideally, get that record over 500 miles. D'Etiveaud says that the window for this opened Sunday morning and will probably last until the end of Monday. Already they are cranking out mileages approaching the mid-400s.



Mike Quilter - still in shorts - works his magic

"Ideally it would be better to be not so broad, but we think we have a good opportunity to do it. We are in a good band of 23-25 knots, broad reaching at between 20-25 knots." At the time of our conversation it was blowing 26 knots from south southwest. While average speeds are appearing in the low 20s point the speedo has been over the 30 mark many times so far this trip, says d'Etiveaud.

"The first night was a bit nerve wracking under spinnaker with 40 knots of wind," he continues. "The boat was just on the edge, but it tracks really well and is very sound. It was good to get a lot of wind at the beginning because now we have a lot more confidence about how the boat reacts."

D'Etiveaud says that despite the newness of the boat they have not be nursing her along. They have been pushing it hard. "We were pushing it more than the maximum. We were regularly seeing 28-30 knots, but not really surfing. We have seen a few waves on the first day, but the sea is basically flat so we are just planning at 22 knots."

What separates Mari Cha IV from other ocean sailing experiences is the ride. "Relaxed" is how d'Etiveaud describes it. "I would love to make up a story that it is blowing 65 knots and we are hanging on for our lives!" As with the big multihulls it feels like you are cruising until the boat speed starts approaching 30 knots. Although they haven't seen massive waves yet, the deck has been virtually dry. "Now we are doing 22 knots and there is bearly any spray. We haven’t closed the companionway for the last two days..."

On board they in the end opted to take 24 crew, divided into two watches of 10 with Robert Miller, helmsman Mike Sanderson and the navigators out of the watch system. The watches are being led by Stu Bannatyne (ex illbruck) and Brad Jackson (ex Tyco). "We have quite a few people on board, so every one has had a chance to rest," says d'Etiveaud. "We do sail changes most of the time on the watch changes. We have 12 people on deck when we do a sail change but the boat is very easy to make changes anyway - a big change from Mari Cha III!" A fraction longer and more than twice the weight the previous boat was considerably harder to handle with much greater loads.

This is possibly why to date - and touching wood/fingers crossed in a major way - they have not had major gear breakage, aside from dropping their Code 7 (used in 130-135deg true) in the drink that required a small repair to the head. "We have fixed it and it is ready to go up but we don’t really need it now," says d'Etiveaud.

The only real incident during the trip so far has been today's collision with what the crew think was a swordfish which became wrapped around the keel. This resulted in them having to reverse their 140ft long schooner some 300-400m to disengage the errant fish. Despite the size of the boat, D'Etiveaud says that reversing is easy because of her schooner rig. "You bring the mizzen right in and drop the jib and the boat reverses very easily."

At present Bernard Stamm's record stands at eight days, 20 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds which would require Mari Cha IV to pass the Lizard on Saturday at 13:34GMT. However at present router Roger Badham told thedailysail that a Thursday arrival was likely while d'Etiveaud is cautiously even more optimist than this, thanks to the good forecast and of course, as ever, barring any serious breakage or damage to the boat.

If this is the case then Mari Cha IV could also break the outright monohull transatlantic record of Bernard Tapie's extraordinary 234ft four master Phocea, which set a time of 8 days 3 hours and 29 miuntes in July 1998 (although she used powered winches).

So, fingers and toes crossed.

More pics on page 2