For those who don't know, our quiet moderator Georgs Kolesnikovs is more than just a publisher and erstwhile listmeister. In 1989, his 60-foot trimaran broke a record that had stood since 1851 - the old clipper ship record from NYC to San Francisco, the so called Gold Route named after the object of desire: California's Gold Rush which began in 1849. The old record of 89 days, set by the 229 foot clipper FLying Cloud, was bested by almost 13 days when Great American did the passage in just under 77 days. While the overall speed record for this route was improved by an Open 60 monohull in 1998 (57 days), Great American has held the multihull record for 19 years. Barring a major delay (weather is a threat), that will change in a week or so when Gitana 13, a 110-foot catamaran with a crew of 10 professional sailors and probably a sizable warchest of cash, will arrive in San Francisco about 40 days after departing NYC on January 18th. She's currently waiting for weather at the Cape. Apparantly, she spends a lot of time double reefed and whizzing through the southern ocean chop at 26+ knots. http://www.gitana-team.com/en/gitana10/homepage.asp Hat's off to Georgs (hope you don't mind my publicizing it). This is quite a feat, an amazing record. Peter