Built in Auckland by Cookson Boats in 1998-1999 to a Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin design, the catamaran PlayStation was created for The Race 2000, an around-the-world event to be sailed by its owner and skipper Steve Fossett. Her structure is pre-preg carbon over an aluminium honeycomb core.
Launched with 105-foot hulls, she proved overpowered and at risk of pitchpoling, so she was lengthened to 125 feet in August 2000. In The Race, mechanical failures from the start forced her to withdraw on day 16.
In 2001 Fossett and his crew crossed the Atlantic in 4 days 17 h 28 min and set a 24-hour distance record. A fire caused by overcharged NiMH batteries while the boat was being prepared for shipping required 26 feet of the starboard hull to be replaced.
Renamed Cheyenne in 2003, she set the round-the-world record in 2004 in 58 days 9 h 32 min 45 s. Dismasted in 2006 off Argentina, she was converted into a power catamaran, mothership for the deep-dive projects of Fossett and then Virgin Oceanic, after being bought in 2009 by Chris Welsh.
Source: · approved by gth