Sojana wins the 2010 Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Cup.

The Farr-Yacht designed 115' superyacht SOJANA, owner Peter Harrison and captained by Marc Fitzgerald, is the winner of the third edition of the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Cup 2010. The boat arrived in St. Maarten today, December 7 2010, at 07:53:48 (Greenwich Mean Time) after sailing 2.700 nautical miles – she left Tenerife on November, 22 - in 14 days, 18 hours and 48 seconds.

Not enough to break the record established by Beau Gest in 2009 (9 days, 8 hours, 54 minutes and 27 seconds), but Sojana is, in any case, a record: she competed in every edition of the Maxi Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Race, since the inaugural event of 2007.

Organised by International Maxi Association IMA in conjunction with Real Club Nautico de Tenerife and the support of St. Maarten Yacht Club, the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Cup is the response to owners requesting for a transatlantic race dedicated specifically to maxi yachts. The regatta is also willing to establish a seasonal circuit for maxis that will allow owners to compete in summer offshore events in the Mediterranean and Europe before moving to the Caribbean for the traditional winter racing season.

Sojana was launched in 2003, and has just celebrated 100.000 miles under sail. The boat is British, but the very high-level crew are international: french are Lionel Pean (Whitbread race winner), Jacques Vincent (Jules Verne trophy winner onboard L'Hydroptere, the fastest sailboat in the world), and Alexia Barrier, Open 60 skipper and environmentalist. From Sweden: Hugo Stenbeck (Head of Victory Challenge for the America’s Cup), and Lars Linger, from Victory Challenge crew. Both past winners of Maxi Transat in Blue Pearl 2007.

The owner, Peter R. Harrison, founder and Chairman of GBR Challenge for the America’s Cup 2003, was recently awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by H.M. the Queen of England , for charitable services through the Peter Harrison Foundation.

The race was sailed under very unpredictable weather conditions, since the tradewinds which normally in November are supposed to be coming steadily from the northeast, have completely let the fleet down this year.

Alexia Barrier, from Sojana: «We started 14 days ago from Tenerife with light wind and in our hands the weather report of our commander telling us that we had a choice to make between a South course with little wind to reach the fare trade winds, or a North one with heavy wind and some low pressure to pass. The choice sounds like an evidence we are racing and not cruising. Sojana needs heavy winds to be fast and so we opted for the North; but we did not expect to have such an unusual weather for the season! Since the start we have flown the spinnaker only for one day and been sailing upwind most of the time with gusts of up to 30knots in the low pressure. So now back to the race. If we are winning today it is with the impulsion of a formidable owner, Mister Peter Harrison who made this boat to be fast, strong and comfortable. During the hard time of the cold front when we had to sail on, the crew never suffered from the bad weather nor the boat from any damage. That may not be the same for our competitors (Zefiro and Valkyrie) who unfortunately had to withdraw in the face of this difficult weather.

The talent of the skipper Marc Fitzgerald is also a part of the victory. He knows how to perfectly run Sojana of course, but also how to compose a crew to make us feel as a family and to keep pushing hard together during those two weeks».

A part from sailing, a very interesting aspect about Sojana is that the boat is gradually becoming environmentally friendly. Her antifouling system is completely non-toxic.

Alexia Barrier continues: «Before the start we equipped the boat with a thermosalinograph, an automated sea surface temperature and salinity measurement system making measurement on board a ship using a water intake. This is an automatic system which is taking info on sea surface each 6 seconds. We contribute to two prestigious programs: the Coriolis program, consisting in on-site observations, aims to set up an integrated system for monitoring and forecasting the state of the ocean at global and regional scales. Second, the Gosud Project (Global Ocean Surface Underway Data), a project of IODE, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. The main objective of GOSUD is to collect, process, archive and disseminate sea surface salinity and other variables collected underway, by research and opportunity ships like Sojana.

Everyday we send a file to the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) that is based in Brest.

An explanation for this strange climate may be found in the data that we are collecting for those programs. 150.000 real time in situ data has so far been sent from Sojana since the start of the race. We are proud to contribute to this challenge because ..in the ocean we trust! ».