To kick off our week we have news that the 80-foot maxi sloop Morning Glory has shattered the elapsed-time record for the 43rd biennial, 2,225-mile Transpacific yacht race from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Morning Glory, co-skippered by German owner Hasso Plattner and three-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts, reached the finish early yesterday morning to complete the race in six days, 16 hours, four minutes and 11 seconds – beating the record of 7:11:04:11 set by Roy Disney's Pyewacket in 1999. According to reports her average speed was nearly 14 knots. Wind was light at the start of the race and for most competitors consistently below the normal 20 knot trade winds that define the sleigh ride to paradise. Morning Glory didn’t see winds above 20 knots true until they had nearly finished the race, but the boat, built by yacht designer Reichel/Pugh, claims a "go fast" pedigree that few other offshore grand prix sailboats can match: it was designed, get this, using "...state-of-the-art America's Cup calibre design tools, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), velocity prediction programs (VPP), tank testing and ultra-advanced construction methods and materials. " All of this boils down to making Morning Glory one of the fastest high tech rocket ship maxi yachts that money can buy. How very German industrialist...
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