11/2008

On Wednesday October the 4th, Ericsson 4 broke through the mystical 600 mile ran in 24 hours. With a 40 knots wind and 8 meters seas, Torben Grael and his team broke the previous best 24-hour run for a racing monohull of 562.96 miles set by Sebastian Josse and the crew of ABN AMRO 2 on the second leg of the 2005-06 race from Cape Town to Melbourne. First toppling the previous mark at 03:55 GMT with a run of 566.57 miles, they raised the bar repeatedly and by 13:00 GMT, 593 miles were on the board as the magical 600-mark grew nearer. By 14:25, they had clocked 594.23 as they moved onwards and upwards. Then came Grael’s holy grail.

Today, the bigger distance ever ran by a monohull in 24 hours is 602.66 milles. “It was not funny at all” said the brazilian skipper. With these terrible conditions, the boat designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian ran with an average speed of 25.11 knots.

More details : www.volvooceanrace.org

Photo Credit : Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

-NG-