PRESS RELEASE
May 28, 2003
TWO ADVENTURE SAILORS BREAK HONG KONG TO NEW YORK PASSAGE RECORD
—Non-Stop 72-day Voyage Finishes at the Statue of Liberty
NEW YORK, NY – A legendary sailing ship record that has remained untouched for a
century and a half toppled on Tuesday night when the trimaran Great American II
sailed into New York Harbor, 72 days out of Hong Kong. This morning, American adventurers
Rich Wilson (Rockport, Mass.) and Rich du Moulin (Larchmont, N.Y.) were greeted by
cheering family and supporters as their 53-foot sailboat passed the Statue of Liberty soon
after 10:00 AM.
"Two and a half months at sea is a long, long time for a classroom session . . . but
it was worth every minute!" said Wilson, skipper of the Great American II,
as he and du Moulin stowed their ship’s sails at Chelsea Piers on Manhattan’s
West Side. For their entire journey, the two men have been communicating with 360,000
school children who were following a series of lesson plans linked to the voyage, on
Wilson’s www.sitesalive.com web site and in
the Newspaper In Education program for schools.
Great American II’s time from Hong Kong on the 15,000 mile passage to the
Ambrose Light Tower off Sandy Hook at the entrance to New York Harbor was 72 days 21 hours
11 minutes and 38 seconds. Her time eclipsed the record of 74 days, 14 hours set by the
extreme clipper ship Sea Witch in the China tea trade in 1849. The record, which
is one day and 17 hours faster than the old mark, has been reported to the World Speed
Sailing Record Council for formal ratification.
Although 154 years of technological development separated these two vessels, Wilson and du
Moulin struggled to keep pace with the ghost of the 192-foot clipper ship, as they trailed
her several times in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
"This voyage was never straightforward," said Wilson, recounting their day by
day battle with the Sea Witch. "Every time we turned around, we were behind
that great clipper ship . . . We have lots of appreciation for those great sailors who
went before us. Even with the technological advances we enjoyed, we learned not to take
any of that for granted. The ocean is a great leveler."
Wilson is already planning future projects for his non-profit sitesALIVE Foundation, in
Boston, Mass., with the aim of training teachers to make effective use of communications
technology in their classrooms. Another goal is to identify funding sources for schools
and school districts with insufficient resources to tap the full power of computers and
technology. Du Moulin, who is also Vice-Commodore of the Storm Trysail Club, will be
briefly at the desk of his Intrepid Shipping Company in Stamford, Conn., before helping to
run the Club’s biennial Block Island Race Week at Block Island, R.I. in late June.
This was the first time that Du Moulin, a former America’s Cup racer, has undertaken
a passage of such duration. "I had to have an element of competition in this,"
said du Moulin. "I had to have the daily benchmark—so I was keeping all these
statistics, my own tally. Until we got to the Northeast tradewinds off of Brazil, ten of
the eleven fastest daily passages were held by Sea Witch. The Sea Witch
could handle the heavy seas of the Indian Ocean. She could charge through them doing
300-mile days, one after another, while we had to slow down in those conditions. Our
advantage was in the light stuff. Taking Sea Witch on in the trade routes was a
bigger challenge than people realize."
On arrival, both men said time with their families and fresh food were their top
priorities as they prepared to return to their normal business lives after weeks cooped up
in the tiny cabin of their wave-tossed boat. Without the benefits of refrigeration they
were limited for most of the voyage to a diet of freeze-dried, preserved and packaged
food. Fatigued but buoyant, Wilson reported their
arrival off New York Harbor to the Sandy Hook pilot vessel on Tuesday night after a
frustrating day of slow sailing in calms and light airs that followed in the wake of wet
and squally weather that drenched New York.
Hailing the pilots on VHF radio, Wilson employed the traditional vernacular of the era of
sail. "Sandy Hook pilots, this is the sailing vessel Great American II,"
Wilson said. "We are 72 days out of Hong Kong by way of Sunda Strait, Cape Agulhas
and the Cape of Good Hope, bound for New York. We request you log the finish time of our
voyage at Ambrose Light."
Great American II’s return to New York Harbor marked the completion of a
brace of record passages—the just-finished voyage from Hong Kong, plus one from New
York to Melbourne, Australia last year when she smashed the record set by the American
extreme clipper ship Mandarin as she carried prospectors to the Australian Gold
Rush in the winter of 1855-56.
Even though they broke the record on Tuesday night with their arrival at Ambrose Light,
the two men continued sailing overnight, waiting out calms and light winds until a light
breeze carried Great American II across her original 2001 starting line this
morning at the Statue of Liberty. The tug Zachery Reinauer was on hand to record
the finish and was joined by the tugs Miriam Moran and Baltic Sea, plus
well wishers and supporters on several other boats.
In 1993 Wilson sailed the same boat around treacherous Cape Horn from San Francisco to New
York, breaking the record of the clipper ship Northern Light and setting a new
mark of 69 days 20 hours. A prior attempt in 1990 in the previous Great American trimaran
nearly ended in tragedy when she capsized in hurricane force winds and giant seas off Cape
Horn. Wilson and his crewman were rescued in a daring feat of seamanship by the
containership New Zealand Pacific that went to their aid. A life-long
asthmatic—he takes four medications daily—Wilson knows that his accomplishments
have a strong resonance with schoolchildren who suffer from asthma and other medical
conditions. "I had to be a scientist about my own body," he tells young
students, "because even if I saw my doctor twice each year, for a half-hour, that was
only an hour each year. But I had to live in my body for the rest of the year: he
didn’t. So I had to be smart and help him to help me with my asthma." Wilson,
52, lives in the tiny seaport town of Rockport, north of Boston. Raised and educated in
Boston, Wilson received an A.B. Degree in Mathematics from Harvard College, an S.M. Degree
in Interdisciplinary Science from MIT and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has
worked as a math teacher in Boston, a defense analyst in Washington, DC, and as technical
consultant on power/desalination plants in Saudi Arabia. He was also a successful investor
in six entertainment companies in Massachusetts. Du Moulin, 56, lives in Larchmont, New
York. His love of sailing and his career in the shipping industry indicate the depth and
breadth of his passion for all things maritime. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (1968) and
Bachelor of Engineering (1969) from Dartmouth College, and an M.B.A. (1974) from Harvard
Business School. Du Moulin has competed at all levels of sailing competition including
four America’s Cup campaigns, two Transatlantic Races, and 17 Newport-Bermuda Races.
Some 360,000 schoolchildren followed the adventure of Great American II on a
daily basis through the sitesALIVE! educational program at www.sitesALIVE.com. Students have been schooled in
math, science, history, language arts, and the hard lessons of life at sea, through the
unique Internet-based programs Wilson has created around his record runs across the
world’s oceans.
* * *
HOW THE PUBLIC CAN FOLLOW GREAT AMERICAN II:
The website tracking the voyage of Great American II is http://www.sitesalive.com. Daily position reports and
a Captain’s Log are posted on the site so classrooms, students and families who
purchase licenses can follow the progress of the boat. For information, go to http://www.sitesalive.com/oceanchallengelive/.
The saga of Great American II is also published in a number of national, regional
and local papers, in the Newspaper In Education supplements, and tracked on the AOL@SCHOOL
program (keyword: sitesalive).
Great American II's Newspaper In Education participation is supported by the sitesALIVE
Foundation. Established in 2002, the Foundation addresses teacher training in
computer technology and funding for budget-constrained schools. The mission of the
foundation is to enhance K-12 education by promoting the use of technology with
real-world, real-time content from around the globe. Visit http://www.sitesalivefoundation.org for
more information.
NOTE TO MEDIA:
For a complete press kit and photos, go to http://www.sitesalive.com/presskit/.
For a chart showing the relative positions of Great American II and Sea Witch,
go to http://www.sitesalive.com/ocl/private/03s/pos/ocl3position.html.
PHOTO AVAILABILITY
High resolution digital images of Great American II at the Statue of Liberty and
arriving at Chelsea Piers are available for newspaper and magazine use.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Keith Taylor
Taylor Associates
Tel/USA: (781) 837-8833
ktolyc@compuserve.com
Cynthia Goss
Goss Communications
Tel/USA: (203) 453-2731
CynthiaGoss@compuserve.com
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