Volvo Ocean Race: Five VO65's break "old" 24 hour mark
by Bouwe Bekking 27 May 2018 18:57 PDT
Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, Day 6 on board Brunel. Sending it in the foggy North Atlantic. 24 May, Leg 9 - Newport RI to Cardiff - 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race © Sam Greenfield / Volvo Ocean Race
May 26, 2017 - Update from skipper Bouwe Bekking onboard Team Brunel, on the wild run:
Well that's what we call a ride! All boats except Vestas and Scallywag beat easily the "old" 24 hour record from Abu Dhabi in the last race.
A bit of push of the Gulfstream did help as well. But especially it says something about how all crews have learned to squeeze more out this One Design, the learning curve has not stopped, plus North Sails gave us better sails for these conditions. We did a couple of changes from the fractional to the "blade", the non overlapping mast head zero. The speed we like, but we all hate the big heeling angles, you can't sit anywhere, the mainsheet trimmer is half hanging against the satellite tower, so there you are sort of OK.
But the persons grinding are in near impossible position, hanging on for their dear life, as the waves hit you especially hard in that spot. Imagine every 15 second you get hosed by solid water hitting you with 50 km per hour. Crazy!
Now we have the opposite, sailing into the ridge of high pressure, a dream for sleeping and as well for drying the boat and gear out a bit.
Akzo is 5 miles to weather, the others behind will close in fast. In roughly 6 hours we know who will cross the high the best. That boat will make initial gains again, but more "stops" to handle on the way to the finish.
It never ends until you're there.
cheers,
Bouwe