Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404240039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Medium
"I would like to thank the sea and the waves and the winds because they let us go through," Isabelle Autissier said after arriving Friday night with her three-man crew aboard the 60-foot Ecureuil Poitou-Charentes 2.
She was welcomed at the dock by about 200 people, some waving French and U.S. flags. Autissier was handed bouquets and the crew was doused with champagne.
The race against the clock followed the 13,945-mile Cape Horn route once traveled by the famed Clipper ships of the last century.
Autissier's official time was 62 days, five hours and 55 minutes, easily besting the previous mark, set in 1989. She was presented with the Clipper Cup by the Manhattan Yacht Club, the official timekeeper of the event.
For Autissier, being the first woman to break the record was a side issue.
"I'm very proud to be the winner of this record and that's enough," she said.
The trip didn't always go smoothly. Early on, she was washed overboard by a wave and rescued by a crewman. There was a long stretch of no wind off Brazil.
"We were becalmed six or seven days. It's quite awful when you're trying to go fast," she said.
But the boat picked up speed after rounding Cape Horn.
"We made 1,000 miles in three days," she said.
Autissier, 37, docked at the Maritime National Historical Park near Fisherman's Wharf, not far from the 1886 square-rigger Balclutha, which rounded Cape Horn six times in its career.
The New York-to-San Francisco route was made legendary in the 19th century days of "iron men and wooden ships" by huge clipper ships like the Flying Cloud, which set the standard of 89 days, 8 hours in 1854.
The French boat is a light monohull with a fairly small sail area and a hydraulic, laterally pivoting keel. Its name combines the French word for squirrel, which is the logo of a sponsoring bank, and a region of France.
Autissier's crew included Luc Bartissol, 28; Pascal Boimard, 42 and Lionel Lemonchois, 33.
by CNB