Playstation Continues South

With the wind shifting obligingly to the N-NW and holding steady at 25-30 kts, PlayStation continued her southerly flight to the west coat of Ireland, passing her waypoint at Eagle Island at approximately five o’clock (GMT) this morning.

With the headwinds of Monday night and early Tuesday morning delaying the rounding of Muckle Flugga, PlayStation’s average speed had dropped to close to 16 knots by mid-Tuesday. But the fast run south through the evening and night had raised that average to nearly 18 knots by early Wednesday – a useful cushion against the record average of Maiden II (15.82 kts) set in September of this year.

The first timed outright Round Britain & Ireland record was established by Robin Knox-Johnston on the 48 foot IOR rated, ‘More Opposition’ in June 1976 in a time of 10 days 23 hours 15 minutes.

The next outright record was Steve Fossett on his 60 foot trimaran ‘Lakota’ in October 1994 with a time of 5d 21h 5m 27s. Included in the crew of 5 were Brian Thompson (GBR) and Helena Darvelid (SWE).

During the flurry of attempts on the record this past August and September (‘Orange’, ‘Hydroptere’, ‘Geronimo’, and ‘Maiden II’ all had a go at setting a fast new mark) Steve’s record was finally broken – by co-skippers Brian Thompson and Helena Darvelid on Maiden II with a time of 4d 17h 4m 23s.

The current attempt by Steve Fossett on ‘PlayStation’ includes 2 crew members from the recent Maiden II record: Fraser Brown (NZ) and Miki von Koskull (FIN).

Position reports since midnight last night

TWA: True Wind Angle

TWS: True Wind Speed

TWD: True Wind Direction