JV Jumble–Fossett Scores Again: The man is just a record breaking machine, and yesterday he an his 125-foot catamaran nabbed another one, making the fastest run in the history of the world from the English Channel to the longitude of Cape Leeuwin in western Australia. Cheyenne and her crew got there in 25 days, 14 hours and 8 minutes, and sailed almost 12,000 miles at an average speed of 18.95 knots doing it. Cheyenne’s time was 14 hours faster than De Kersauson’s blistering 2003 record for this segment, and a full 3 days, 17 hours faster than Orange 2002’s time. She’s now 1474 miles ahead of Orange’s 2002 record pace (chart here), and ripped off a 577 miles day yesterday. Here’s what crewman Fraser Brown had to say about the exhilarating ride:

“Blasting – We have finally got the good full-on Southern Ocean conditions that you come here for. We have had the last 2 full days of incredibly blasting conditions riding on strong North Westerlies with squalls coming through increasing the wind from 35 to 40 knots. We have been sailing at a 100 to 110 wind angle with 2 reefs and storm jib and even reefed the storm jib at one stage. We have been sitting on the good numbers all day and night topping out at around 36 knots, this boat was built for these conditions – we haven’t yet stuffed the bow in which is enabling us to drive as hard as we can.

Great conditions through the night – wet and fast driving with clear goggles on just seeing the white caps around you and the B and G displays. We have just broken the Ushant to Cape Leeuwin record beating Geronimo’s time. Nice to break something other than the boat. We are currently about 1300 miles ahead of the record but not quite halfway so heaps can happen yet. We are in Aussie waters and heading straight east at 51 South soon to be under kiwi land, then next up the Horn.

Bring it on. Sheet on and send it.”

Hmm, think there guys are having fun? Conditions will change, though. Strong winds are forecast to continue for a couple more days, but there is a big, fat high pressure system sitting over New Zealand which will mess with the fast-moving depression they just surfed across the Indian Ocean. So the routing could get complicated. And there’s always the endless challenge of keeping the boat in one piece. Cheyenne may be handling the Southern Ocean extremely well, and keeping her bows above water. But she’s not even halfway round yet and is taking some hard hits on the back beam as waves shoot up through the trampoline. At 30-35 knots, that’s a sick, sick impact…



The Look of 30 Knots…

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

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