Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 2 Day 10

ABN AMRO TWO sets a new monohull 24-hour record of 558 miles during leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race © TEAM ABN AMRO / Jon Nash

World record falls again

ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) has pushed aside the GANT TIME 24-hour run record of 546 nautical miles, previously held by their senior brethren on ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) during leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race.

This young and relatively inexperienced crew has broken the record for a second time, achieving 558 nautical miles in the past 24 hour period. Her average speed was 23.3 knots. This record will be presented to the World Sailing Speed Record Council for official ratification.

Speeds are high throughout the fleet. The pirates on the Black Pearl (Paul Cayard) have achieved a run of 540 nm, and fourth placed movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has managed 510.

ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) is suffering, now over 800 nm behind the leader, after suffering damage to their mainsail luff track.

This is the second time on this leg that the Aussie battlers have had a problem with the track. On the first occasion, they were able to make a repair which enabled them to either hoist a full mainsail, or a sail shortened to the second reef point. But, as they were pushing hard to get across the bottom of the low pressure which had formed in their path, they ripped the track off the mast again, this time at the second reef halyard lock which was far worse.

They are now only able to hoist the mainsail with a third reef in, which drastically reduces the sail area and therefore the boat speed. “What can we do out here?” wrote a very frustrated Grant Wharington this morning. “Nothing. This is the kind of repair which gets done on the ground with the rig out. We will have to just battle on with what we have.”

Position Report: (10:00 GMT)

ABN1 - ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 - ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 - Brasil 1
INGB - ING Real Estate Brunel
ERIC - Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI - movistar
POTC - Pirates of the Caribbean

DTF: Distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader, DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll

LPTS: leg points at first scoring gate

TLPTS: total leg points to date inc. scoring gate points if yacht maintains current position

RPTD: Race points to date inc. in-port race points, scoring gate points and leg points the yacht would score if yacht maintains current position.

OVERALL: position in race overall if yacht maintains current position.

Update from ABN AMRO One:

What a fantastic effort guys. You deserve this, we have got your new record at 558 already, and I am sure it will go up.

From all of us here on ABN AMRO ONE, we are so excited for you guys and another massive day for the team, I hope all the shore team take a lot of enjoyment out of this as well, as I know the whole team have worked there hearts out for days like this...

Normally it would be a sad day to have to hand something like this over, but we are genuinely very excited for you guys.

Massive effort, our greatest congratulations to everyone.

Cheers
Mike,Stan, Betty and the Guys
P.S.. haven't we taught you to respect your elders better then that...!!!

Mike Sanderson
Skipper ABN AMRO 1

Update from ABN AMRO Two:

Just wanted to say that the boys are absolutely stoked with cracking the 550 mark although we don't want to celebrate too soon as the guys around us are going pretty damn fast as well. It has been an awesome 24 hours though, phenomenal speeds but safe and under control - a testament to how incredible this new class is!! What an awesome race.

Cheers,

Si Fi. Simon Fisher - navigator

Update from ING Real Estate Brunel:

FRUSTRATION PERSONIFIED!!

It is enormously frustrating to drive a V8 motor car running on only 4 cylinders, that’s how it feels out here!

On day 2 in this leg from Cape Town whilst sailing under 1st reef we pulled the mainsail luff track off the back of the mast at the reef point. After Woos (Gareth Cooke) spent 2 hours up the rig repairing it, we decided we could continue without using this reef point, so for the next week we had to go between full mainsail and reef 2. But 36 hours ago, whilst pushing hard to get across the bottom of the low which had formed across our path and into the fast north westerlies, we ripped the track off the mast again, this time at the second reef halyard lock and far worse!!

Now we are down to 3rd reef only as we cannot pull the mainsail up past the broken track at reef 2. The 3rd reef on a Volvo 70 is about the size of an optimist mainsail, which is fine if you have 50+kn of wind which we did get when we did not make it across the low!! However in any less windspeed we are dreadfully slow and stuck watching or opposition put big miles into us on every sked.

What can we do out here?? Nothing, as this is the kind of repair which gets done on the ground with the rig out. We will have to just battle on with what we have. This is now a flash back to leg one where the rich get richer every day!!

Signing of a very frustrated Grant Wharington, Skipper, ING Real Estate Brunel