- Title: UNITED STATES: STEVE FOSSETT BREAKS PACIFIC SOLO SAILING RECORD.
- Date: 24th August 1996
- Summary: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 24, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF STEVE FOSSETT ON HIS BOAT HEADING INTO PORT IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 2. COAST GUARD CREW 3. FOSSETT GETTING OFF HIS BOAT 4. CLOSE-UP OF BOAT 5. FOSSETT SAYING HE WAS FRUSTRATED WHEN LOST THE WIND ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS BUT ON THE WHOLE THE TRIP WENT WELL (ENGLISH) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 8th September 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA4WU5RRC9JFVU9KYTY666BY1DH
- Story Text: The American Steve Fossett, who in 1995 made the first solo crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, repeated the feat on board his triamaran "Lakota" on Saturday (August 24) to break the record for sailing solo across the Pacific.
Fossett, 52, sailed non-stop from Yokohama, Japan, to San Francisco in 20 days, 12 hours and 53 minutes, knocking three days off the record set by John Oman in July 1994.
The 4,525-nautical-mile journey officially ended on Saturday morning when Fossett's craft crossed beneath San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
It was Fossett's eighth world speed record in 24 months.
Fossett's trimaran, with a maximum speed of 34 knots, was equipped with a global positioning system for navigation and a satellite imaging system for weather forecasting. He spoke to his support crew during the whole journey via satellite communications.
During his voyage, Fossett, a Chicago securities dealer, struggled through days days with little breeze and others when 30 knot winds and 11-foot (three-and-a-half metre) waves battered his craft.
Fossett, who funded the voyage himself and had no sponsor, has spent much of his life in pursuit of world records in both sailing and ballooning.
In February 1995, when he became the first person to fly a balloon solo across the Pacific, he took off from South Korea and landed in a field in Saskatchewan, Canada. His 6,000-mile (9,600-km) solo flight set a new world ballooning distance record.
In August of the same year, Fossett and three crew members sailed from Yokohama to San Francisco in 16 days. They knocked almost five days off the old Japan-San Francisco sailing record of 21-1/2 days set by the clipper ship "James Stafford" in 1885.
Also in 1995 Fossett knocked six hours off the Los Angeles-Honolulu sailing record. He also holds Atlantic crossing records, by both balloon and sail.
But he has had his failures. In January of this year abold attempt to circle the globe in a balloon ended abruptly when he made a forced landing in a snow-covered Canadian pasture.
Fossett is planning to try again for the record in November .
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