Aotea, 40’ Trimaran

 The famous yacht Aotea, designed for noted multihull sailor Peter Hogg. Aotea set records for nearly every race she entered around San Francisco, and still holds the San Francisco to Yokohama singlehanded record.

Builder: Marc Ginisty (Frog Force)

Some records:

• San Francisco to Japan, Singlehanded - 1992, 34 days 6 hours

• Singlehanded Transpac Race Record, 1994 - 8 days, 20 hours, 16 minutes (record broken in 1998 by an ORMA 60 trimaran)

• Doublehanded Farallones elapsed course time of 3 hours 48 minutes, 1992, (second fastest time on record, DH)

• 1991 & '92 Three Bridge Fiasco (First to Finish, First Overall)

Aotea met a sad end after she capsized during the 1995 Doublehanded Farallones Race. Both her crew, owner Peter Hogg and designer Jim Antrim were rescued from the overturned boat about an hour after the incident. Despite efforts to locate and recover Aotea, Peter was unable to locate her along the California coast. Aotea was eventually found in Micronesia, where her main hull lives on as a fishing vessel.

Jim wrote an account of the capsize at the time, which can be read here. He also discusses the Aeotea during an interview on Ben Shaw’s Out the Gate Podcast.