Speed freaks

madforsailing spoke to Adrienne Cahalan and Paul Larsen about Maiden II's 24 hour record

On deck there were five nominated drivers - Brian Thompson, Helena Darvelid, Paul Larsen, Fraser Brown and Rodney Keenan - who were rotated every hour to keep them fresh. The rest of the crew worked a loose watch system. "I managed to get a couple of hours sleep," said Larsen. "A few times you did an accordion impression at the end of your bunk."

They went down the mine on two occasions. "Everyone is battered and bruised," said Cahalan. "Walking down the corridors you have to be very careful."

Prior to leaving they had set the boat up, optimised to sail on starboard tack. "The port hull got knocked around a lot. We'd in fact closed up the port hull, emptied it out. When we hit 44 knots, the window blew out of the bubble on the port side." The guard rails on the bow of the port hull also got knocked down by sheer water pressure. "All the stickers are peeling back at the bow. We're starting to peel the bikini top off the mermaid!" commented Larsen of the boat's emblem left over from here Club Med days under Grant Dalton.

It should be noted that the 697 miles refers to the distance between two points over a 24 hour period and in fact Maiden II would have sailed more than 700 miles in this period. Cahalan feels that if they hadn't experienced the lull they could have got another 20 miles. The drop in wind lasted around 1.5 hours, but they also had three hours of having to slow the boat down in the seaway and adverse current.

Maiden II is expected in Ocean Village on Wednesday. Currently Cahalan says they have a nice wind direction, but adds, "there are a few big storm between us and the UK. Today we'e taking it easy. We going to do a little bit of sail testing en route. There's no sail damage. Just a little bit of wear and tear."

The team are currently awaiting ratification of their record from the World Speed Sailng Record Council.

The out going record holder Steve Fossett sent the team this message: "Congratulations! You have won a real prize. We knew the competition would heat up for this 24 Hour Record. There are five boats which can contend for it, and we didn't think our record would last for more than about a year. But this is one time I wish we hadn't been right; it would have been nice to keep it a little longer!" He added. "This record really defines the fastest sailboat - and the fastest sailors
- in the world, and you should be extremely proud."

And indeed they should.

The record breaking crew...
Back Row: Anne Monmousseau, Fraser Brown, Rodney Keenan, Paul Larsen, Ben Wood, Sam Davies
Middle Row: Lanee Butler, Christine Haffi, Brian Thompson, Greg Homann, Adrienne Cahalan, Helena Darvelid
Seated Front: Stan Delbarre