PlayStation smashes Trans-Atlantic record

8.30 am

LONDON - American skipper Steve Fossett and his international crew aboard the 125' maxi catamaran PlayStation have set a new West-East TransAtlantic world sailing speed record (subject to official ratification).

They set the new time of 4 days 17 hours 28 mins 6 secs against the official course distance of 2925 nautical miles.

That beats the previous record of 6d 13h 3m 32s set 11 years ago by Serge Madec on Jet Services 5 by a huge margin of almost 44 hours.

Shortly after passing the finish line at The Lizard, an elated Steve Fossett said, "This is enormously satisfying. We put it all together; an extremely fast boat in PlayStation, ideal weather and a crew who sailed brilliantly."

PlayStation crossed the start line at Ambrose Light, NY on Friday (5 October) at 17.19.17 GMT and maintained an incredible 25.78 knots average speed all the way across the Atlantic, finishing at 10.47.23 GMT (11.47 pm yesterday NZT).

A new 24-hour speed record of 687.17 nautical miles was also set during the period 22.00 GMT 6 October - 22.00 GMT 7 October.

PlayStation's TransAtlantic Crew

Steve Fossett (USA) -- Skipper

Stan Honey (USA) -- Navigator

Ben Wright (AUS) -- Watch Captain

Dave Scully (USA) -- Watch Captain

Gino Morrelli (USA) -- Boat Designer/Crew

Peter Hogg (NZ) -- Crew

Shaun Biddulph (UK) -- Crew

Dave Calvert (USA) -- Crew

Paul Van Dyke (USA) -- Crew

David Weir (USA) -- Crew

- NEWSTREAM