At 09:47:40 local Honolulu, Hawaii time today, Olivier de Kersauson’s 110ft trimaran Geronimo has set a new record speed time from LA-Honolulu. Team Geronimo passed the Diamond Head buoy and navigator, Larry Rosenfeld, confirmed that she has bested her own record from LA-Honolulu which was established in November 2005 by 24 minutes, 39 seconds.

Commenting from the boat Rosenfeld said: “Yesterday we had an idea that since we were going so close to Hawaii, we might as well get three records in one,” says Rosenfeld. “Our plan was to sail through the finish/start line at Diamond Head and have Skip Winterbottom, the independent timekeeper, take our time as we crossed. If we could keep up our speed, not only might we might beat our own LA-Honolulu time of 4 days 19 hours 31 min 37 sec, we’d set a good benchmark for the Pacific Cup coming in July,” he added.

Of course, there is another Steve Fossett record from Honolulu to Yokohama of 13 days 20 hours 9 min 22 sec which Geronimo and her crew would love also to break. “We’re having a little tussle with the World Record Speed Sailing Council about whether they will allow intermediate records on the way to getting a longer record,” says Rosenfeld, adding, “It’s done on the round-the-world course every time, but they seem to have changed their rules recently. No matter, we will know we did it and Honolulu is not really too much out of the way in these wind conditions.”

With a gybe south and then west, the next destination for Geronimo and her dedicated crew is Yokohama, Japan. The record to beat: San Francisco (USA) – Yokohama (Japan) set by Steve Fossett in 1996 is 19 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and 9 seconds.

Geronimo crew list
Olivier de Kersauson

Didier Ragot

Larry Rosenfeld (USA)

Jean Charles Corre

Lucas Zamecnik

Xavier Douin

Antoine Deru

Philippe Corre

Rodolphe Jacq

Pascal Jagut

Kazuhiro Nishimura (Japan)