In spite of being becalmed for nearly two days early in the race, the MOD 70 trimaran Phaedo³ owned by owner/driver Lloyd Thornburg crossed the finish line off the southwest coast of England to record the fastest elapsed time (unofficial) in the 2,800 mile Transatlantic Race.
Thornburg, co-skipper Brian Thompson, and the rest of the crew’s elapsed time of 7 days, 2 hours, 4 minutes, 9 seconds was well ahead of the other fast boats that started in Newport, Rhode Island last Sunday including Jim Clark’s 100-foot sled Comanche, George David’s Rambler 88, and Peter Aschenbrenner’s 63-foot trimaran Paradox.
Phaedo³ continues to raise the bar of what’s possible in offshore racing and the numbers tell the story:
652 nautical miles = Max 24 hour miles covered
2,442 nautical miles =Miles covered in 4 days (once the wind filled in after being becalmed) averaging over 600 miles per day for 4 days
41.2 knots= Top speed
Thornburg and company have thrown the high performance multi-hull gauntlet down and hope to see more fast multihulls in future offshore races and they are putting their money where their mouths are. They’ll be racing aboard Thornburg’s original Gunboat 66 Phaedo as he goes for a rare Owner/Driver offshore double in the Transpac next week.
