The Class 40 trio of Alberto Riva, Jean Marre and Benjamin Schwartz set a new 24-hour record in their class during the Niji 40 transatlantic race. The Class 40, which was leading at the time, logged an impressive 433.53 nautical miles at an average speed of 18.06 knots.
"What a race!" said skipper Riva, explaining that his crew had run into a low-pressure area with very difficult wind and wave conditions. "The positive thing is that we literally flew and managed to keep sailing south-west of the Azores towards Marie Galante," said the Italian.
This performance broke the record of 430.47 nautical miles previously set by Alberto Bona and Pablo Santurde del Arco during the Les Sables-Horta 2023 race. The Class 40 "Acrobatica", designed by Gianluca Guelfi and completed in 2023, proved just how fast she is. In 2000, this would have been enough to cover more distance than the 20-foot longer Imocas.
Class 40 "Acrobatica": Record won, leadership lost
However, their record now stands at 640.48 nautical miles. This was set on the fifth leg of The Ocean Race 2023. Unofficially, Boris Herrmann's team Malizia was ahead with 641.13 nautical miles in 24 hours, but the small difference to the previous record set by "Holcim - PRB" was not enough for it to be officially recognised. This is due to inaccuracies in the GPS, which is why a new record distance must be at least one nautical mile better than the previous one according to the specifications of the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
However, the newly crowned record Class 40 had to relinquish the lead in the Niji 40 yesterday and is currently in second place. However, the situation is extremely tight around 960 nautical miles from the finish line, with the French "Ocean First/Groupe SNEF" currently in the lead by just 2.4 nautical miles.
