Mari Cha v Maiden Hong Kong

Mega-maxi boat showdown to take place in next year's Rolex Transatlantic Race

With a 21 January 2005, deadline for entries in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005, 21 yachts have so far entered or indicated that they intend to enter the race.

“These transatlantic races don’t happen often - or often enough, I believe - and perhaps it is pent-up enthusiasm that accounts for such good numbers and, even more gratifying, such good boats so early,” said A. Robert Towbin, Chairman of the New York Yacht Club’s Transatlantic Challenge Committee. Towbin, whose Sumurun won the Classic Division in the 1997 Atlantic Challenge Cup, this race’s predecessor, expects 25 to 30 yachts to enter the race.

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, for monohull yachts 70ft (21.3m) length on deck or more, is hosted by the New York Yacht Club with the cooperation of the Royal Yacht Squadron. The race will start off New York on 21 May, 2005. A theme is to break the 100-year-old transatlantic race record of Atlantic, skippered by Charlie Barr, which in 1905 raced from New York to The Lizard in England in 12 days, four hours, one minute and 19 seconds. That is the oldest race record in sailing. There will also be handicap and elapsed-time prizes for Grand Prix, Performance Cruising and Classic yachts.

The top contest will be a showdown for the first time between Robert Miller's 140ft (43m) canting keel schooner Mari Cha IV holder of the transatlantic passage record with a time of 6 days 17 hours 52 minutes and the brand-new 115ft (35m) canting keel and canting rigged Maiden Hong Kong owned by Frank Pong and designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian.

Other expected entries to date are Tiara, the second-largest boat in the fleet at 178ft (54.3m), designed by Ed Dubois & Associates; Anemos, a 112ft (34.1m) Swan to be skippered by Stephan A. Frank; Destination Fox Harb'r, a 134ft (40.8m) Dubois-designed sloop, owned by Ron Joyce; Sariyah, a 131ft (39.9m) S&S-designed ketch, chartered by Cortright Wetherill Jr. with Tim Laughridge as skipper, which finished second in the Atlantic Challenge Cup; Leopard, Mike Slade's 98ft (29.9m) Reichel Pugh design; the 116ft (35.4m) Whisper, designed by Ted Fontaine ; the 140ft (42.7m) Whirlaway, again a Dubois design, and the 151ft (46m) Windrose of Amsterdam, owned by Chris GonGriepe.

Also entered is the 230ft (70.1m) Stad Amsterdam, the largest entrant, launched in 2002 as the first clipper ship to be built in 130 years and chartered by members of the Storm Trysail Club.

Also in the line-up are Kokomo , owned by Lang Walker, a 132ft (40.4m) Dubois design; William Strewart's Scheherazade, a 155ft (47.2m) Bruce King design; and Peter Harrison's 115ft Farr designed ketch, Sojana.

At least three contemporary 70- and 80-footers will join the fleet: Palawan, a 75-foot (22.9m) Hood design owned by Joe Hoopes, which won its class in the Bermuda Race in 2002; Carrera, an 81-foot (24.7m) Reichel Pugh design owned by Joseph Dockery, the first yacht to finish the 2004 Bermuda Race; and Kim owned by John Duerden, a 72-foot (21.6m) custom-steel ketch drawn by Hoek Design with a classic look but a modern underbody.

Then there is A. Robert Towbin’s aforementioned Sumurun, a 94ft (28.7m) Fife design built in 1914. Other classics include Tim Britton's Aello, a 125ft (38.1m) gaff schooner built in 1921 to a design by Max Oertz; the 80-foot (24.4m) Mariella, an Alfred Milne design built by Fife in 1939 and skippered by Carlo Falcone; and Nordwind, an 88ft (26.8m) composite ketch built in 1938 to the design of A. Gruber. The latter yacht set the course record in the Fastnet Race (88 hours and 23 minutes) that stood for two decades.