Record Time from Los Angeles to Honolulu

Published on May 16th, 2017

Honolulu, HI (May 16, 2017) – In the darkest hour of this morning, Lloyd Thornburg and his crew aboard the MOD70 Phaedo^3 swooped past Diamond Head Lighthouse buoy at 4:32:18 am local time to set a new speed record from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii.

After their start on May 12 at 21:40:15 (UTC), their elapsed time of 3 days 16 hours 52 minutes and 03 seconds (to be ratified by the WSSRC) on the 2215 nm course will have shaved off an hour from the previous record of 03:18:00:09 (24.61 kt avg) set by 105-foot VPLP-designed trimaran Lending Club 2 back in July 2015.

“An unbelievable trip,” remarked Thornburg. “Can’t believe we actually broke the record! This was the most difficult sail of my life. Everything went our way and the team put out a super human effort in order to keep the boat moving at nearly 30 knots through the entire trip. We are all excited for a well deserved rest and some sight seeing in Hawaii.”

Crew on board for the race were: Lloyd Thornburg, Brian Thompson, Fletcher Kennedy, Justin Slattery, Pete Cumming, Henry Bomby and David Swete.

“The first night was rough as expected with 30 knots plus on the beam and a big sea state,” said Thompson, reflecting on the crossing. “We had 3 reefs and the J3 which is our storm jib up most of the night. We lost some time there but the second and third day have been keeping up with a routing pace. When we were under 500 miles to the finish, it was 25 knots with more in the squalls and we were tearing downwind towards Honolulu.”

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