Gitana 13 a week out

Lionel Lemonchois and his crew make slow progress on their New York-San Francisco record attempt

Setting out from New York on 16 January aboard Baron Benjamin de Rothschild's 33m maxi-catamaran on their record bid to San Francisco via Cape Horn, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew are currently less than 2,050 miles from the finish, after 35 days sailing. However, these last few miles are likely to cause them no end of trouble.

The fifth week at sea for Gitana 13 in the Route de l’Or has been marked by a
change of hemisphere - early on Tuesday night - when coming up the western side of the American continent, the maxi-catamaran crossed the Doldrums. This proved
particularly troublesome compared to its Atlantic cousin.

“Our second Doldrums were fairly spread out but not at all violent," commented skipper Lemonchois. "We had some very shifty winds and some big clouds, which generated a lot of rain. However, contrary to what you can sometimes encounter when crossing this zone, the jumps in wind were never overly brutal. Nevertheless, we had to work with light winds for over two days in order to find the exit."

Finally Gitana 13 emerged at around 7°N. Since then, they have set off on a northwesterly heading on a beam reach. However, in the next few hours the wind is forecast to come on the nose as they encounter moderate northerly winds.

“Our last few miles upwind will be very uncomfortable both for the boat and for the crew," continued Lemonchois. "And the prospect of over 1,500 miles of headwinds is slightly clouding the joy of the imminent finish. On this record, we really haven’t had much of an
opportunity to make great progress, apart from on the first quarter of the course as far
as the Equator. We've either had the wind from astern, forcing us to gybe, or we’ve been upwind, which is not Gitana 13's preferred point of sail!”

According to the latest estimates the maxi-catamaran may could make its entrance into San Francisco Bay and beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in a week's time, Thursday 28 February.