And the Hits Just Keep Coming

Records have been breaking left and right over the last several days. First we reported that Paul Larsen broke his own on-the-water sailing speed record of a few days before — first with 59.37 knots over 500 meters on November 16, then again with 65.45 knots on November 24 sailing on Namibia’s Walvis Bay with his innovative Vestas Sailrocket 2. Larsen is applying to the World Speed Sailing Record Council for a second record: a peak sailing speed of 68.01 knots. The council has already ratified the first record, noting that it took Larsen just 14.85 seconds to cover 500 meters, but the latter is still awaiting ratification.

Moving farther down the African continent to the Cape of Good Hope, the lead pack of five boats in the Vendée Globe are passing through the Aiguilles ice gate. Over the course of 48 hours, four boats smashed the 24-hour speed record of 468.72 nautical miles, previously set by Alex Thomson in 2003. The first to break it was François Gabart (MACIF) on December 1, after covering 487.23 miles in 24 hours. As his record was being submitted for ratification by the WSSRC, Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec 3) beat it with 498.8 miles covered, and then a few hours later, beat it again with an incredible 502.23 miles, averaging — averaging! — 20.9 knots. Shortly thereafter, Thomson (Hugo Boss) broke his previous record with 473.87 miles, and Bernard Stam (Cheminées Poujoulat) was the last to do it with 482.59 miles.

Today it was announced that Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) is the holder of a new race record for the fastest trip from the start at Les Sables d’Olonne to the Cape of Good Hope. At 22d 23h 48m, he demolished Vincent Riou’s ’04 record by about 27 hours, and was also the first skipper in the race to pass the Cape of Good Hope.

Cléac’h has held the lead for most of the race, but gave it up to Jean-Pierre Dick on Saturday and regaining it yesterday. Alex Thomson also made a surprise leap in the standings last week by moving up from fourth to second, though he’s currently in fifth place. The shuffling of the leaderboard has made this a very compelling race. Keep track of all the news at www.vendeeglobe.org/en.