Steve Fossett will not stop his quest for sailing records when he finishes his current around the world voyage. Fossett whose home town is Chicago will once again compete in the Chicago to Mackinac race. In 1998 sailing Stars and Stripes he set the outright record of 18 hours, 50 minutes.

In 2004 Fossett will bring his world record breaking maxi multi hull Cheyenne to Lake Michigan for the first time. It will be the first fresh water record attempt for this boat.

In a unique twist Fossett and his catamaran will be foolish enought to compete against an automobile that will drive from Chicago to Mackinac City. The automobile will be a Lexus LX 470 SUV, filled to its 8 person capacity and towing a trailer.

Expected travel time for the automobile is 9.5 hours to Mackinaw City. Once there, the 8 person team will take the ferry to Mackinac Island. Once aboard the ferry the trip will take another 16 minutes for a total time of 9.75 hours.

Cheyenne averaged 25.78 knots in setting the west to east trans atlantic record in October 2001. If she was to sail the 333 mile Mackinac course at this pace her elapsed time would be just under 13 hours.

Since the automobile has the advantage of predictable highway conditions, and since the Mackainac winners are determined on a handicap basis Cheyenne will receive a time allowance from the Lexus. The allowance will be 4 hours.

This special handicap system will be known as the Ameri-ABS or Ameri Automobile Sailboat speed equivalent system. It is hoped that the ABS system will allow more auto v. sailboat races, and lead to a potential NASCAR/America’s Cup tie in.

Cheyenne will tune up for her Mackinac effort by racing the Queens Cup course against the new Lake Express ferry. This race will be on a first to finish basis. Fossett is confident his catamaran can make the 66 mile trip in under the 2.5 hours that the ferry will take to make the trip.

From onboard Cheyenne in the North Atlantic Fossett said, “I expect to make a fool out of Lake Michigan.”

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