SAIL.SailMagazine

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try and try again! When Paul Larsen launched his first Sailrocket back in August 2004 with the goal of setting a new world sailing speed record, he never expected nine full speedsailing seasons would pass before a whole new boat finally succeeded.

It was the late 1960s, and Gig Harbor Yacht Club Commodore Dick Carlson and Ed Hoppen, a Pacific Northwest boatbuilder known for building Thunderbirds, were sitting around Ed’s kitchen table one night chewing the fat...

In 1993, it took a fully crewed maxi catamaran, Explorer, to break the 80-day barrier for a circumnavigation under sail. Since then, that record has not only been cut nearly in half, it has now been matched by a solo sailor.

Although numbers remain down from the event’s pre-recession heyday, Quantum Key West Race Week 2013 will undoubtedly go down as one of the strongest in the event’s long history.

Vendée Globe skipper Jean-Pierre Dick’s hope of placing third was crushed Monday when his boat, Virbac-Paprec 3, suddenly lost its entire 4-ton keel just before midnight.