(wake thundering and hissing)
- [Narrator] A few years ago,
entrepreneur Jim Clark envisioned a boat
built purely for speed.
A boat so light, so fast,
that it would shatter
every record it attempted.
In 2014...
That dream became a reality,
with 100-foot monohull, Comanche.
- [Ken] It's by almost any measure
the fastest monohull in the world.
- [Narrator] With her
revolutionary design,
she has since been dominating
the world of professional sailing,
blowing competitors out of the water.
Now, skipper Ken Read is on a mission
to break one of sailing's
most prestigious benchmarks,
the transatlantic record.
- It's one of the holy grails
of ocean-going records.
- [Narrator] A grueling
journey of 2,880 nautical miles
from New York to the
southern tip of England.
The crew's success depends largely
on how elite navigator, Stan Honey,
can predict, harness,
and adapt to the Atlantic's
fickle weather patterns.
If broken, this record will
secure Comanche's place
among the most successful
racing boats in sailing history.
(slow mysterious chiming)
- Overview of Comanche is really simple.
It’s, uh, Jim and Kristy Clark's dream to have
the ultimate race boat, the
ultimate monohull race boat.
- [Narrator] Clark's team
analyzed every aspect
of the modern monohull,
then set out to build
the next iteration of racing boats,
principally designed to
break open ocean records.
- [Ken] The build team that we assembled
are the best of the best.
- There was no expense spared
in creating this thing.
It's either carbon or titanium.
- With the engineering structure,
with the use of carbon fiber,
with this canting keel mechanism,
this boat is literally half the weight
of a boat like this,
even 10, 15 years ago.
- Ken Read, the skipper,
and Jim Clark, the owner,
gave the designer a
very, very clear mission,
which was to design and build
the fastest possible boat
that was legal to enter into
the major ocean races around the world,
and to, ideally, set the course
records for these events.
That sort of clarity of
objective was, I think, critical
to the boat coming out the way it did.
- You know, it's meant to make a statement
in the sailing world,
and you can just tell
by its outward appearance, it
makes a statement. (laughs)
- The level of detail that they
take in building these boats
then filters down throughout
the whole sailing team.
- Ken is among the best
sailors in the world.
He's a commentator for the America's Cup,
he's extremely
knowledgeable, you know, about sailing,
and he's a great skipper.
- Ultimately, what I'm
pretty good at doin'
is getting a compatible group of all-stars
from all around the globe,
that can actually handle a boat like this.
It's like a Formula One car:
You let it get away from
you, it'll get away from you.
- It is a very dangerous boat.
Everybody who is onboard this boat
either has America's
Cup, Volvo Ocean Race,
Grand Prix high-end racing background.
It's their career; it's their job.
- My job, specifically,
is really quite easy:
I get to sail the coolest
boat in the world.
I guess, as the skipper of the boat,
I'm ultimately responsible
for the safety of the crew,
the big decisions, you know?
I work very closely with
Stan Honey, the navigator,
on where we position
ourselves in the ocean.
It's critical, because the
navigator and the skipper
work together very closely.
And then where we overlap
and work together,
is in the tactic area.
- The boat's a 100-foot screamin' machine,
that has been built to break
every record in the world
that we can, and she's
on her way to doing that.
- [Stan] Once in the water,
Comanche went straight
for her competitors.
- Wild Oats is the boat to knock off,
and we're here for a
reason, but there's also
three or four other really
good boats in this event,
that could do the same exact thing,
so we've just gotta go out and sail well,
and let the chips fall.
- [Chris] The sheer size
of it, it looks different
to any other boat out there at the moment.
(crowd cheering)
- I think it's fair to say,
we've got the fastest
100-footer in the world.
You saw what it did off the starting line
and what it did down that first run,
and we were 30 miles ahead when we broke.
We love this boat.
- [Jim] We've had good
luck, racing in those races
and setting the records.
- This boat's unique,
because it's the fastest
in the world. (laughs)
- [Narrator] With wind in
their sails, the Comanche team
set their sights on sailing's
most prestigious prize,
the transatlantic record.
- Stan Honey is a legend in our sport.
When you think of all
the great navigators,
Stan is one of those guys right at the top
of the list who comes to mind.
The amount of work that he puts into it,
to make these attempts happen,
without him, it wouldn't happen.
- So, uh, the transatlantic monohull record is
probably the most prestigious
sailing record of any.
- [Narrator] In 1905,
the transatlantic record
was first set by the schooner, Atlantic.
It took her 12 days and
four hours to cross,
a benchmark that stood for 100 years.
Since then, only four boats
have improved on her record.
- [Ken] The current project
we're setting out to do
is to try to set the monohull record
for the fastest transatlantic passage.
That record is currently set at
six days, 17 hours, by Mari-Cha.
- Mari-Cha did as well
as any boat could do
in that tactic, where you're
gonna have to use two systems
to get across the ocean.
So what we were trying to do
was to take an entirely
different approach,
which nobody had ever
done before in a monohull,
but take a single system
all the way across.
- You know, he watches the weather,
just religiously,
looking for all these small little things
that might happen.
- I had access to 11 years
of historical weather data,
so I routed Comanche every six hours
for each of the last 11 years,
from June through November,
and what I discovered was
that there was only two
possibilities per year, on average,
where Comanche could stay
ahead of a southwesterly storm
the whole way across.
- You can't take the ocean for granted.
This is man against ocean, this
is man against the elements.
If I've learned anything,
you start to just
get a little cocky in the
ocean and it'll bite you, hard.
- [Narrator] July, 2016.
Stan Honey spots a moving
low in the westerlies,
potentially favorable
for an Atlantic crossing.
Within a day, the
international Comanche team
is assembled in New York City,
waiting for a green light.
- It was kind of a cruel turn of fate
that it turned out that the
perfect weather had evolved
at a time when Kenny couldn't join us.
- For Ken, it just came at a period where
he had a prior commitment
with the America's Cup,
but that's the nature of weather.
- [Narrator] If Comanche launches,
Captain Casey Smith will
take the helm as skipper.
- I’ll (expletive) my pants to start with. (laughs)
- But at that point, Kenny
knew just how hard it is
to find these opportunities, and said,
"Okay, well, I can't make
it, but you guys gotta go."
- To be able to be told that,
"Hey, you're gonna be the guy in charge,"
and I was really, really
happy to be in that position
and trusted like that.
- Casey is an enormously
experienced sailor,
and he was the boat
captain, so he's the guy
in charge of moving the
boat around between events,
so nobody knows the
boat better than Casey.
- Casey in the pit, Nick Dana at the rig.
- The transatlantic was a
very interesting one for us,
because we had three false starts.
You're waiting for that exact window
and you have to be ready at any moment,
so your life's pretty much on hold.
At this point, we're not that confident
that this was actually, the one.
- We are getting constant
information from Stan.
- We wanna start as close
as we can to the front,
but ahead of the thunderstorms,
because if the thunderstorms catch us,
you guys know what happens.
- [Nick] It felt like a bit
like launch day for NASA,
where you're waitin'
for that exact window,
and you have to be ready at any moment.
- [Stan] This is the...
put yourself in harm's
way to try to do something
that nobody else has ever done before.
- [Casey] And then when
we pushed off the dock
and started motoring out,
that's when it really was like,
"Wow, we're doin' it, we're gonna go!"
Amazing.
(tense music)
- It's real, it's happening.
We positioned ourselves about a mile away
from the Ambrose Light,
which gives us enough runway
to hit the start line at full speed.
We had the sail combination
that we wanted to use,
we had the perfect wind,
it was time to let it rip.
- [Nick] The acceleration,
doing 25 knots to 30 knots,
- Honey!
Oh, this is perfect, guys.
- [Nick] Doing that jump in
such a short amount of time
can often put you on your butt.
- Copy, 16:58.16.
- And we came past the
Ambrose Light fully lit up.
Everyone gave a huge hoot and holler
as we went past the start
line, and off we went.
(wake hissing)
(dramatic drum-heavy music)
And, it's pretty radical.
You've got all the sail area up,
you've got all the power
in the world you need,
so, you know, for a start,
you don't want to mess it up.
(wake hissing)
(dramatic music)
- New York's there, England
is there, 3,100 miles now.
We're gonna knock this bastard off.
(thunder rumbles)
(wake hisses)
- [Narrator] But just as they're off,
things take a dangerous turn,
as Comanche tangles with a
formidable thunder storm.
- The worst part of it,
the most dangerous part, weather-wise,
was actually the first
night and that next morning.
- We started ahead of a front,
and the thunder storms preceding the front
came out earlier than expected,
and kinda gobbled us up,
which was unexpected,
and you know, we definitely
had to change our plan,
adapt on the go,
sail a course that we
weren't expecting to sail,
and the first thing in my mind is,
"Is it over?
"Are we done?
"Are we sailing home and
going on standby again?"
- [Narrator] For hours, the team battles
through the wind and waves
of the unforeseen lightning squall.
- You know, you can't
control the lightning.
The lightning does what it wants to do,
and so you basically just
put that out of your mind
and focus on the sailing.
You focus on what you can control.
- I thought it was over.
When the thunderstorms came, I
thought it was actually over.
But luckily, we were able to find
a little narrow bit of
breeze, up close to land,
and escaped.
- And we managed to just
wiggle our way out of it
and, uh, keep on going.
- Well, tough morning, day two.
The thunder storms, which were brewed up
over the Central America,
came out and got us.
Now we've popped out the other side,
and we're back in the forecast winds.
- [Interviewer] Looking good?
- So we're heading east at pace.
- It's probably closer
to a dive expedition.
We spend a lot of time underwater.
All of our gear is our
only line of defense
from becoming totally saturated,
turning into a giant raisin.
- You've got 18 guys onboard,
and it's for 5-1/2 days,
so it's pretty tight quarters,
even though it is a 100-foot boat.
You're sharing bunks, sharing bowls,
you're sharing water bottles
for drinking and everything.
- This race we just did a
simple four-on, four-off,
you know, traditional watch system.
- [Casey] That's a challenge
in itself, you know,
waking up every four hours
to come on deck and do your watch.
- No, you're off the lock!
- [Casey] And then off you go again.
You might sleep for
three hours out of that
when you're down, when you've eaten.
- [Nick] If you're lucky, you
get your four hours off watch,
but you never miss your
four hours on deck.
- When you're off watch, you
gotta do everything else.
That's when you gotta do the cooking,
do the tidying up, do the eating,
and try to get some sleep.
The four hours goes by pretty darn quick.
- So, you have your helmsmen, who are...
They'll drive the boat for two hours.
You've got your trimmers of the sails,
who are basically the engine,
making the boat go fast.
- So I'm one of the bright individuals
that is on the front of the boat,
that's basically taking on
a lot of the dangerous situations.
Up front, we deal with all
the sails going up and down.
- [Casey] And then you've
got a lot of the guys
who are required for the
muscles and everything,
to pull those sails in.
- The more prestigious of the records
are set by boats where
all of the sail handling
is done with human power.
- We have six grinding pedestals,
so we have to pull any
sails up or trim them in.
We have 12 guys just going at it,
until, you know, the trimmer's
happy or, you know, the sail's up.
- [Casey] You're working
the sails, you're grinding,
you're steering, you're always sort of losing,
losing, losing, losing against the, the sleep.
- [Stan] There's no place I'd rather be,
even though, it's a terrible
place in a lot of respects.
- Oh, I wish I had new boots. (laughs)
(wake hissing)
(crew chatting)
- Being onboard Comanche in the
middle of the Atlantic Ocean
is something that, you realize
how small you are out there.
You realize that you're a speck.
Personally, I love the silence.
You know, when you're
flying an airplane across
and you look down, you're
never gonna see us.
It's huge.
You know, if we were to lose all
communications and everything,
you'll have a hard time finding us.
- Another thing that you
tend to notice early on
is how big the ocean is.
You know, if you're sailing around the world,
you can just sail for day,
after day, after day, after day,
even on a really fast boat.
- You have a lot of time to
think, when you're out there.
The day slows down a lot.
You're living every hour.
(water splashing)
- It's kinda cool to just disconnect,
and you're out there, in the elements,
the wind and the waves...
It's nothing like it, it's crazy.
- You have a lot of time to reflect on
everything in your life, but as well,
you have a lot of time to appreciate
where you are in the world.
All of us were
definitely captivated by
the sea at that point.
- It's amazing.
- You get the clouds getting
lower, and lower, and lower,
and the sky turns more and more gray,
and then you get this sort of
drizzle, as it starts to rain,
and that's what we had, all
the way across the ocean.
Just kind of this gray drizzle.
- Things move differently
compared to other keeled
boats I've sailed on.
One minute you're doing 10 miles an hour,
and then you blink, and honestly,
you're up to 20 to 30 miles an hour.
- The thing's a weapon.
It just goes forever, and it's
not a really short awesome,
but things being awesome for days on end.
(tense music)
- Okay, guys, there's ice
contours we're keeping track of.
- [Narrator] Day three,
Comanche faces its greatest obstacle,
navigating through an area
known to have icebergs.
- There was a very small
patch of south-westerly
that we had to stay in,
and that patch of wind
took us right through an area
where there was known to be ice.
(tense throbbing music)
- Couldn't see more than
100-feet in front of the boat.
Fully engulfed in fog.
You know, doing 20 knots,
100-feet isn't enough
warning to avoid the ice.
- And it sounds crazy,
to have guys on deck keeping
a careful watch for icebergs
when you can't even see the bow,
but a funny thing happens when
you get close to an iceberg.
The icebergs are just unbelievably white
that they appear to glow.
You know, you're sailing along and the pea soup fog
suddenly gets a little bit clearer,
and then a part of the
horizon looks funny,
'cause it looks like it's glowing.
- The consequence of hitting icebergs
is so severe and it's like you just
turn it out of your mind.
We just can’t. You prepare for it, but
if it happens, it happens.
- On the leeward side of an iceberg,
you can get these small
bits of ice called growlers.
They're too small to see on radar.
You know, they're like the
size of a pick-up truck.
If it hit the boat exactly wrong,
it's potential, that it
could punch a big enough hole
into the boat, so that
the boat could sink.
- To be fair, it's hard to sleep
when you're off watch and go down below,
because you know the other
watch is going through
exactly the same thing, so
it's a little bit nervous.
Not my favorite part of sailing.
I don't like it, yeah.
- That's why, when we sleep down below,
we sleep with our feet forward,
so if you stop suddenly,
your feet'll take the impact,
not your head.
- Hey guys, we're out of the area
that there are known to be icebergs,
and we've got 20 minutes
till we're out of the area
where there's any
possibility of an iceberg.
- Yeah, right now, by the GPS
we're at 22 miles, a
little over an hour to go.
- We knew we were on the pace.
We knew that the time was right.
(winches ticking)
- And a lot of transatlantic records fail
right at the finish.
Boats get within a hundred
mile of the finish,
and then they stop, due to the light air.
And I knew, once we were
2/3 of the way across,
that that wasn't gonna happen,
that that low was powerful
enough to push that ridge
and we were gonna have
good breeze all the way in.
- [Interviewer] What are you looking for?
- Land, yeah.
We're looking for the Lizard.
Should be on the bow, about 10 miles,
can't quite see it yet.
- And the finish is off
the Lizard Lighthouse
in southwest England.
- Now!
(cheering)
- [Casey] Thank you very
much, mate, good on ya!
(speaking in foreign language)
- Essentially, we had crushed the record.
- The goal was to improve
Mari-Cha's record by a day.
We were able to improve it
by one day, three hours.
We pioneered a completely new tactic,
which is the tactic of
doing it in a single system.
And it was just barely possible to do that
with a boat like Comanche,
and I don't think
it would have been possible
with a monohull that was any slower.
- This boat was built to do that.
It did it.
We're all very happy.
- It's such a special thing,
to be able to break this
transatlantic record.
Huge thanks to the weather gods
to allow us to do it, as well,
'cause that what it really took.
- I'm happy, I'm tired! (laughs)
- I think, for everyone in the crew
it was something they're real proud of,
because these records live forever.
- [All] Hooray!
- A record like the transatlantic record
is one of the most prestigious
events in all of sailing.
Even if somebody beats our record,
it'll always show that Comanche
took one day, three hours
off the previous one.
(laid-back synthesized music)
(fireworks whistling and cracking)
