Gitana 13 at Midway Mark San Francisco to Yokohama

Gitana 13 left San Francisco on Saturday March 29th at 22h45’45’’UT in a bid to smash the North Pacific crossing record from San Francisco to Yokohama. Skipper Lionel Lemonchois and his ten crew are now spending their sixth day at sea this Friday. The maxi-catamaran Gitana 13 is already approaching the symbolic halfway mark! With their lead of over 585 miles on the reference time, the second half of the course for the men of Gitana 13 looks very good for blasting the sailing record currenly held by the yacht Geronimo.

After a rather inhospitable start to the course, Lionel Lemonchois and his crew have benefited from some ideal sailing conditions over the past 48 hours to rack up the miles. In so doing, they have consolidated their lead over the current record holder, Olivier de Kersauson and his crew aboard Geronimo, who achieved a time of 14 days 22 hours 40 minutes and 41 seconds: “The skies have turned blue over the past few days; the outside temperature is ideal and we’re sailing downwind in a breeze which is sufficiently strong to ensure we make good headway. In addition, the albatrosses are sizing up Gitana 13 in the surf, so what more could you possibly ask for?" said the skipper of the maxi-catamaran ironically.

“For this second record in our 2008 campaign, we have sought to make Gitana 13 as light as possible. As a result we've only the minimum of diesel and spare parts aboard. This modification has been very successful as the boat's performance has dramatically improved. We are ahead of our routing and we're making the polars work at 105 %, which is a fairly good sign” detailed a satisfied Lionel Lemonchois. The reasoning behind this is that since leaving San Francisco, the crew of Gitana 13 have maintained an average speed of over 22 knots despite some rather uncomfortable sailing conditions during the first three days. The Gitana 13 maxi-catamaran clocked up its best mileage so far over a 24 hour period yesterday, racking up 612 miles.

As usual, the Lionel Lemonchois and Sylvain Mondon duo have managed to hone Gitana 13's trajectory as finely as possible, in order to save on or even minimise the sailing manœuvres aboard the maxi-catamaran. In fact, since slipping under the Golden Gate bridge last Saturday, the eleven sailors have only made two changes of tack; pretty interesting given the 2,888 miles covered to date.

Currently on starboard tack, trucking down the southern edge of the vast zone of high pressure to their north, the sailors of Gitana Team are preparing to negotiate a new ridge of high pressure this evening. At that point Lionel Lemonchois and his men will have to put in a gybe.

• Gitana 13 on 4th April
• North Pacific crossing (San Francisco – Yokohama)
• Speed: 24 knots – Heading: 299°
• Lead over the current record: 585 miles
• Distance left to go: 2,472 miles
• Time to beat – 14 days 22 hours 40 minutes 41 seconds
• Departure from San Francisco – on Saturday 29th March at 22h45’45’’ UT
• Latest finish date to beat the record - Sunday 13th April at 21h25’26’’ UT

-- Gitana Crew Member Kojiro Shiraishi: the eleventh man --

Usually sailing in a configuration of ten, the crew of Gitana 13 have welcomed the Japanese sailor Kojiro Shiraishi aboard for this North Pacific crossing. He has proven to be a very special recruit who has brought both his vision of sailing and life in general to the maxi-catamaran.

A disciple of the great Japanese solo sailor Yukoh Tada, this 40 year old sailor has three round the world voyages to his credit, two of which were races. The youngest man to complete a circumnavigation of the globe under sail in solo configuration and without stopovers, Kojiro was then just 26 years old. Four years later, he embarked alongside Bruno Peyron on the catamaran Explorer for a record between Yokohama and San Francisco. The year 2000 marked his arrival in the ocean racing scene. He took the start of the 2002-2003 edition of Around Alone, where he ranked 4th in category 2. In 2006, it was at the helm of a 60 footer, the former Temenos owned by Swiss sailor Dominique Wavre and rechristened Spirit of Yukoh, that he participated in the Velux 5 Oceans. At the end of a Round the World dominated by Bernard Stamm, Kojiro came a highly credited second and achieved his first podium finish in a big ocean race.