 World Record |
San
Francisco to Boston - California Gold Rush Great American II vs. Northern Light A Lecture & Slide Show by Rich Wilson |
World Record |
San
Francisco to Boston - California Gold Rush Great American II vs. Northern Light A Lecture & Slide Show by Rich Wilson |
 Northern Light 76 days 20 hours - (1853) Captain Freeman Hatch |
 Great American II 69 days 20 hours - (1993) Skipper Rich Wilson |
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| History Gold was discovered in California in 1849. With no transcontinental railroad nor Panama Canal, prospectors could either take prairie schooners across the dangerous plains, or board clippers to round the Horn to get to the new gold fields. The clippers were the fastest and offered the best chance to stake a good claim. On their return, clippers loaded passengers, gold, and cargo from the Orient, for New England. In 1853, Northern Light, Captain Freeman Hatch in command, departed San Francisco for Boston by way of Cape Horn. Racing Comet and Trade Wind, Northern Light caught Comet off the Horn. Captain Hatch shouted to his rival that "he could not hold his steed", and passed her. Arriving in Boston, she posted the fastest time in history.
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Lecture
Description In 1993, Great American II departed San Francisco for Boston both to challenge Northern Light's great record and to link the voyage to schools. Skipper Wilson, having lost Great American off the Horn in a terrible storm 3 years earlier, sailed with determination and trepidation. First night squalls were forecast, but a fierce storm erupted. 94 knots of wind were recorded inshore at Santa Cruz. Vertical 20's seas from the flash storm overwhelmed GAII, submerging her with one wave and breaking off her port bow. Returning to port, Walter Greene led a reconstruction effort made urgent by the 12 newspapers publishing the 12 part school series on GAII. Walter finished in an astonishing 9 days, and GAII set off again. Building a 1 day lead by the equator, GAII headed south past Easter Island and Pitcairn Island. The Neighborhood of the Pacific, brought history to present day in imagining the great sailors and explorers who had sailed those waters: Darwin, Drake, Bligh, Christian, Cook. A squall past Easter Island drove the 53' tri to 24.0 knots with the crew diving to sheets and travellers to slow down. Flying fish were rampant and on the approach to Cape Horn, with albatross as guiding companions, the spinnaker kept GAII at 21 knots in the one high pressure system among 7 lows. Rounding the Horn after 32 days, GAII was finally in the lee of the South American continent. But the calm of the lee didn't last. A terrible battering off Uruguay knocked out the Inmarsat-C, the main communications with Prodigy and the Newspapers. The SSB took over. In a later calm off Rio, Northern Light closed in. Across the equator, desperately holding onto a 3-day lead before the strong trades where Northern Light would excel and make a charge, GAII sailed through the Harmattan, the dust off the Sahara, and then made her final run on Bermuda, The Gulf Stream and Boston. Hear Rich talk about overcoming his fear of Cape Horn, the disappointment of the bow breakage, and the final gratification and excitement of having nipped Northern Light's record, but most importantly, having linked the voyage to millions of newspaper readers and hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren. |
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