Fossett Sails Stars & Stripes to Victory in Record Time

Steve Fossett beat the sun and the committee boat to the finish line to win the 51st Newport-to-Ensenada international sailing race Friday.

Fossett and a crew of six, sailing the 60-foot Stars & Stripes catamaran, found ideal conditions to set a multihull record of 6 hours 46 minutes. That time easily beat the previous record of 8 hours 27 minutes, set by Dennis Conner on the same boat four years ago. It was also more than an hour better than Fossett’s course-record time of 7:35, set in 1996 during a run that was not part of the race.

In becoming the first boat to finish the race before sundown, Fossett’s dark blue double-hulled craft averaged 18.4 knots for the 125 miles. The race started off Newport Beach at noon.

By finishing ahead of the committee boat, Fossett had to confirm his time with a satellite Global Positioning System (GPS).

“We had eight knots of wind to start and then 16, and we also had a good wing angle from the west,” Fossett said. “We were flying a hull [out of the water] most of the way.”

Late Friday night the wind was still holding for the monohulls, as they shot for the 15-year-old record of 12 hours 10 minutes held by the 84-foot Christine.

Fossett’s crew was composed of Gino Morelli, who designed the boat; Ben Wright, Brian Thompson, Peter Hogg, Mark Callahan and John Gladstone.

There was a glitch at the start when the race committee inadvertently fell a minute behind in the countdown to the gun. Fossett and all six ULDB 70s crossed the line at the proper time, but the gun wasn’t fired until a minute later. Fossett and two or three of the big monohulls returned to start over but the others continued, promising some protests to be sorted out today.