In the battle for a new 24-hour record in the Volvo Ocean Race, the leading boats have repeatedly outdone each other over the past few days on the ninth leg from Newport to Cardiff. Simeon Tienpont's team AkzoNobel currently holds the new impressive record with 601.63 nautical miles at an average speed of 25.8 knots. If you compare this distance with the world record set by Jim Clark's American "Comanche" in 2015, there's not much left, even though the VO65 yachts are a whopping 35 feet shorter. "Comanche" managed 618.01 nautical miles three years ago.
The previous records from the Volvo Ocean Race have long since been surpassed. In 2008, skipper Torben Grael and his team managed 596.6 nautical miles in 24 hours on the 70-footer "Ericsson 4". For comparison, the 24-hour record for single-handed sailors set last year by Alex Thomson with his Imoca "Hugo Boss": 536.81 nautical miles at an average boat speed of 22.36 knots.
As much as the crews have used the speed to make rapid progress towards the Welsh destination harbour of Cardiff, they are now dreading entering the flat zone that blocks their way past Fastnet Rock and on to the British west coast. The two front runners, AkzoNobel and Team Brunel, have already slowed down accordingly, reaching speeds of only 11 or 12 knots on Saturday morning. Almost 40 or more nautical miles behind them, the pursuers were still travelling at between 16 and 18 knots, but also have some ground to make up and will soon be caught in the weaker winds themselves.
A good 600 nautical miles before reaching the stage harbour, the two Dutch boats were separated by just over four nautical miles on the sixth day of the stage. Behind AkzoNobel, Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team was in third place on Saturday morning, more than eleven nautical miles ahead of the fourth-placed team, Vestas 11th Hour Racing. Still in fifth place, the Spanish team Mapfre, which leads the overall standings, struggled to catch up with the leading group. Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic followed 79 nautical miles behind the Dutch team. David Witt's team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag was 108.3 nautical miles behind, but was still unable to close the gap significantly.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
