MULTIHULL PERSONALITY
Words by Lia Ditton
Mark Featherstone
and PlaystationPart One
The Mariana trench in the Pacific Ocean, is 11,000 feet deeper than Everest is high.
At the time of his death, American billionaire, Steve Fossett was gearing up to be the
first man to descend into its depths by submarine. Fossett’s catamaran, the 125 foot
Cheyenne, formerly known as Playstation had just been converted into a docking
station that would transport the custom one-man sub to and from location.
Playstation at the start of THE RACE - Pic by DPPI
eading up the marine side of the project was Mark
H
Featherstone. We speak to Mark, now the last man standing,
about the incredible transoceanic record-breaking life of
Cheyenne/Playstation and in part two, about the loss of the
Cheyenne rig and his ongoing involvement with Fossett projects.
Until the early 90s, Mark Featherstone lived and worked in Salcombe,
volunteering as RNLI lifeboat crew. His desire to get into multihull sailing came
after witnessing the Plymouth start of the double-handed Round Britain &
Ireland race. ‘I was totally blown away by the tri’s flying a hull. There was an
open fishing boat and to avoid hitting it, the tri flew two hulls. You just don’t see
stuff like that!’ Through friends and delivering boats, Mark’s golden opportunity
came in 2002 when Playstation’s boat captain, Dave Scully offered him day
work. The boat had a nucleus of people who worked full time on the boat and
extra people were brought in as and when needed. This was after ‘The
Mark Featherstone
Race,’ - the RTW non-stop maxi-cat race of 2000 and the boat had just
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  JULY 2009 : MULTIHULL REVIEW  23
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