Some call it the "Mount Everest" of sailing: a voyage from New York to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.

And now an international sailing crew aboard a racing yacht called the Maserati is about to break the record for a single-hulled sailing vessel making that 13,000-mile trip.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Carl Nolte said modern sailors are fascinated with the voyage.
 
It’s the toughest voyage in the world," Nolte said, "because the waves in the southern ocean are 30, 40 and maybe 50 feet high sometimes and you have to really be careful to get around that okay."

The current record for the journey is 57 days, 3 hours. The Maserati is expected to sail under the Golden Gate tonight or early tomorrow, beating the old record by 11 days.