“This is insane - 35 knots of wind, pitch black and we are desperately trying to squeeze more speed from a boat that feels and sounds like it is going to self destruct any second” skipper Ian Walker wrote.
It’s certainly been a case of batten down the hatches in the eight boat fleet as they ride the 'monster storm'. Skipper Torben Grael’s own modest account, however about how Ericsson 4 broke the 24-hour record, not once but several times, stands in contrast to many other reports, because the Brazilian Olympic gold medallist makes it all sound so routine.
At lunchtime on Wednesday, Ericsson 4 'obliterated' the 24-hour record run for a monohull when the team recorded a run of 602.66 nautical miles (1,116km), an average speed of 25 knots (46km). The previous record (562.96nm) was set by ABN AMRO TWO during leg two of the previous Volvo Ocean Race in 2006. The new mark is subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
From the race website you can listen in as watch captain Brad Jackson talks about the record run; you’ll hear Jackson say “it’s just like sailing in Lanzarote, actually,” Lanzarote is where the Ericsson team trained for several months.
This tells us that Grael was ready for these conditions, and if you study the race tracker, you’ll watch them pull away from Puma and Green Dragon. It’s obvious they have the confidence to shift gears, gears that neither Puma or the Galway entry appear to have.
