Great American Slows, but Remains on a Record Pace

The two-man crew of the trimaran Great American remained in good spirits Monday despite light winds and a broken watermaker in their bid to break the record for sailing from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn.

Skipper Georgs Kolesnikovs reported via radio telephone from 500 miles off the coast of southern Mexico that he and Steve Pettengill were “baking in the sun” and had started to ration water to about a gallon apiece per day.

“But if we’re able to maintain our speed and get into San Francisco in about 10 days it will not be a problem at all, other than we’ll be somewhat ripe,” Kolesnikovs said. “We have 25 gallons, and we also have emergency reserves of another 15 gallons.”

The device that converts saltwater to fresh failed Saturday. The only concern, Kolesnikovs said, was in scaling down their standard of living.

“We’ve been making five or six gallons every day because we’ve been living pretty well, washing and drinking as much as we want.”

From here on they planned to use no water for washing or cooking.

Two days of light winds dropped them from six to five days ahead of the record pace of 80 days 20 hours by Thursday’s Child when it broke the 135-year-old record of the clipper ship Flying Cloud earlier this year. On Day 65 Sunday they averaged only 4.1 knots and sailed 97.6 miles while tacking against light (northwest) winds of 5-10 knots “right on our nose,” according to Kolesnikovs.

Sailboats can’t sail directly into a headwind, but at the end of Day 66 Monday, Kolesnikovs said the wind was “clocking (shifting right)” as they moved out of the doldrums and into the northeast trades.

As Kolesnikovs spoke, he said, the boat was making 7.9 knots in 9.3 knots of wind, was averaging 7.7 since leaving New York March 10 and needed to average only 5.2 knots the rest of the way to finish by 7:23 a.m. May 30 and break the record.

“We’re about half a knot faster than Thursday’s Child,” Kolesnikovs said.

He projected a finish on May 25.

Otherwise, he said, the temperature was 80 degrees at night and “we’re getting a moon that’s almost full. (Our) frustration was high (in the light winds), but in terms of sheer pleasure (sailing), these last two days north of the Equator have been remarkable (with) the moon, the sun, dolphins, luminescence in the water--you name it, we had it all, except the wind in the right direction.”

Another weather problem loomed ahead: “A low disturbance moving in on California which is going to bear watching,” Kolesnikovs said. “If the low persists, it will create flat spots offshore and we will want to come very close to shore.”

Monday the crew planned to celebrate their birthdays--Kolesnikovs’ 47th last week, Pettengill’s 37th this week--and the boat’s seventh anniversary of launching.

“We’re going to have a big party on board tonight,” Kolesnikovs said. “Steve’s wife gave us a big bottle of champagne, and we’ll have popcorn. Everybody that can show up is invited.”

However, they haven’t seen another vessel in nearly a month.