Cam Lewis, skipper of the 110-foot American catamaran Team Adventure, today challenged Steve Fossett, skipper of the 125-foot catamaran PlayStation to a 3,000 mile match race across the Atlantic Ocean.

The giant multihulls are preparing for an attack on the transatlantic sailing record. They are splitting their standby time between New York and Newport, RI, as they wait for a favourable weather window.

Team Adventure will be campaigned by Lewis, from Lincolnville, ME and his Swiss/French co-skipper Laurent Bourgnon. They will sail with an international crew of 15, including Larry Rosenfeld, Lewis’ partner in Team Adventure, who will be navigator.

Lewis acknowledged that Fossett is about to put his sailing plans on hold while he attempts a solo round-the-world balloon flight, starting from Australia.

“If we get a suitable weather window opportunity while Steve’s away, we’ll go without him,” Lewis said. “If we’re still waiting for the weather when he returns, we look forward to match racing PlayStation for the record.”

The existing mark of 6 days, 13 hours, 3 min, and 32 sec was set by French skipper Serge Madec sailing the 75-foot catamaran Jet Services V, in June 1990. Madec and his crew averaged 18.42 knots (34.5 kph) for the crossing.

Two years ago, sailing Bourgnon’s 60-foot trimaran Foncia Immoblier, Lewis and Bourgnon narrowly missed breaking the record when they ran out of wind only 46 miles from the finish. Theirs was the closest of nine attempts in the last 11 years to eclipse Madec’s time.

A prize of 26,000 US Dollars and a beautiful trophy has been posted by Roger Caille, former president of the French courier operation Jet Services, for any boat that breaks the record of the boat his company sponsored.

Credit: www.TeamAdventure.org.