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Sweden's Ericsson 4 breaks yachting speed record in Volvo race
AFP - Thursday, October 30
MADRID (AFP) - - Sweden's Ericsson 4 has broken the world 24-hour distance record for a monohull yacht during the Volvo Ocean Race around the world which departed from Spain earlier this month, organizers said Wednesday.
The boat, which leads the first stage of the race between Alicante and Cape Town in South Africa, beat the record several times during the day before traveling 602.70 miles (1,115 kilometres) in the South Atlantic in the 24-hour period that ended at 1854 GMT.
That shattered the previous record of 562.97 miles set in January 2006 by Dutch boat ABN Amro 2, skippered by France's Sebastien Josse, in the Indian Ocean during the previous edition of the Volvo race.
The new world record for a crewed monohull still must be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
Ericsson 4, the race favorite, sailed at around 25 knots through a low pressure area with winds of around 30 knots.
"The record is a great achievement," Ericsson 4's Brazilian skipper Torben Grael said in an interview on the race website. "To be honest we were not really looking for records, we were looking for a good ride on this weather system for as long as possible.
"Conditions were marginal, especially during the night. It was no fun at all. The problem was the waves, especially during the middle of the night as there is no moon and it is very difficult to read them so the boat has been jumping about.
"We have been very much on the edge, if we had an easier sea state we could have gone faster," said the double Olympic gold medalist.
The Ericsson 4 yacht has only 10 crew on board instead of the usual 11, after dropping off an injured crew member in the Cape Verde islands.
It was about 50 miles ahead of US Puma Ocean Racing of the United States and some 1,500 miles from Cape Town, where the eight 70-foot (21.5-metre) long boats taking part in the race are expected to arrive on Sunday or Monday.
Chinese-Irish entry Green Dragon was in third place ahead of Sweden's second entry, Ericsson 3.
The finish line in the race of 37,000 nautical miles is in St Petersburg, Russia, where the teams are expected in June 2009.
France's Bruno Peyron set the record for the longest distance ever traveled in a yacht in 24 hours when he covered 766.8 miles in the Orange 2 catamaran -- a multihull yacht -- during his 2006 round-the-world sailing record.
Positions at 2200 GMT Wednesday:
1. Ericsson 4 (SWE)/Torben Grael (BRA) 1,482 miles from Cape Town
2. Puma Ocean Racing (USA)/Ken Read (USA) 51 miles behind
3. Green Dragon (IRL-CHN)/Ian Walker (ENG) 133 miles
4. Ericsson 3 (SWE)/Anders Lewander (SWE) 143 miles
5. Telefonica Blue (ESP)/Bouwe Bekking (NED) 202 miles
6. Telefonica Black (ESP)/Fernando Echavarri (ESP) 240 miles
7. Delta Lloyd (NED)/Ger O'Rourke (IRL) 371 miles
8. Team Russia (RUS)/Andreas Hannakamp (AUT) 392 miles
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