Record breaking conditions for Volvo Ocean Race fleet
by Volvo Ocean Race 24 May 2018 17:19 BST
24 May 2018
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, day 2, on board Brunel © Sam Greenfield / Volvo Ocean Race
Team Brunel, at the head of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on day five of Leg 9, has provisionally set a new 24-hour distance record in the Volvo Ocean 65 class.
The team blew past the previous record of 550.8 nautical miles set in the last race by Abu Dhabi Racing just after 14:00 UTC on Thursday afternoon.
Since then the team has kept adding to the mark. By 15:45 UTC, the new record stood at (provisionally) 560.06 nautical miles.
But Brunel isn't alone. team AkzoNobel is just six miles behind Brunel on the Leg 9 leaderboard and has also broken the old standard, and sits about three miles behind Brunel in terms of the outright record.
Conditions are expected to be conducive for high speeds for several hours yet. Stand by to see who emerges with the new record and where the new standard gets set.
Update:
team AkzoNobel has now posted a distance of 588.1nm in 24 hours to push the record further.
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