Record stomping first timer

Alex Thomson heads for the record books

Positions at 0500

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Latitude	Longitude	DTF	DTL
1	Alex THOMSON	AT Racing	N345704	W0241084	1257	0
2	Vincent RIOU	PRB	N340700	W0231912	1259.2	2.2
3	Mike GOLDING	Ecover	N322110	W0243791	1380.9	123.9
4	Sébastien JOSSE	VMI	N310956	W0245316	1442.6	185.6
5	Nick MOLONEY	Team Cowes	N295180	W0254328	1529.8	272.8
6	Joe SEETEN	Arcelor Dunkerque	N272124	W0262884	1672.8	415.8
7	Benoît LEQUIN	Wel.network	N252676	W0273620	1800.9	543.9
8	Benoît PARNAUDEAU	Colibri - Charente-Maritime	N233952	W0294752	1957.6	700.6
9	Anne LIARDET	Gonna-Gitcha	N212504	W0295776	2073.8	816.8
10	Jean Pierre DICK	Virbac	N212956	W0304628	2095.2	838.2

A double for whammy for Alex Thomson this morning: The 0500 position reports show that he has not only stormed back into the lead of the Defi Atlantique with a 2 mile lead over Vincent Riou's PRB, but may have also stormed into the record books.

Subject to World Sailing Speed Record Council ratification, Thomson covered 466 nautical miles from yesterday at 0444GMT when he was at 29deg 58.20N 31deg 01 320W and 0442GMT today when he was at 35deg 05.32N 24deg 00.96W

The official record held by the WSSRC was set by Dominique Wavre aboard Union Banque Prive during the last Vendee Globe stands at 430.7nm, although Roland Jourdain on board Sill - the same boat Thomson is currently racing - is known to have sailed 434 miles during the final days of that race.

To put this into context illbruck's best daily run fully crewed during the Volvo Ocean Race was 484 miles. This fully crewed monohull record was broken in October by Mari Cha IV who set a new benchmark of 525.7 miles. The present singlehanded multihull 24 hour record is held by Laurent Bourgnon who covered 540 miles during his record breaking singlehanded crossing of the Atlantic in 1994.

During the course of this last 24 hours the wind was constantly blowing 35 knots and gusting to 40 for Thomson. With a true wind angle of 140-160deg the swell has also been in a good direction. During this time he made six headsail changes between the Code 5, solent and staysail and spent most of the time with one reef in until changing down to two reefs when the wind piped up to more than 40 knots.

“My main objective was to regain the lead of the race, so I pushed reasonably hard from my westerly position, and over the last four days have enjoyed exceptional sailing conditions south of the Azores," said Thomson. "I knew I could be on for the record yesterday afternoon when I was sure that I was well positioned in this band of strong wind. So to find out this morning that I have passed into the lead of a fleet made up of the best Open 60 skippers on the circuit is superb, but to have broken the 24hr solo record – and by so much – is an amazing bonus. All I need now is a sponsor! If someone had told me before I could average over 19 knots boat speed for that long I’d tell them they were lying, but now I know I can get more out of the boat!”

“I’m absolutely knackered! I’ve been running on adrenalin and spending at least 70 percent of my time on deck, surviving on tuna and Hellmann’s sarnies, a lot of Lucozade Sport. This doesn’t distract me from the goal of this race, to finish the race and qualify for the Vendée Globe, but I’m enjoying the extras along the way!”

Over this period he has had no sleep and has been surviving on tuna and mayonnaise sandwiches and chocolate, but has found time to make himself a square meal of chicken and mashed potato.

The cockpit was regularly full of water and Thomson said that this had in fact been a benefit because it helped keep the bow out! The worst problem was the tails of ropes streaming overboard or down the cockpit drains.

The four sheds over the last 24 hours show Thomson consistently averaging just over 19.5 knots.

Although he is sleeping at present it is possible that this 24 hour record (subject to ratification) will be bettered as conditions have not abated. Thomson expects to pull further ahead of PRB as he is currently sailing around 3 knots faster than Riou is. He is also concerned for the sails - the mainsail for example has done four transatlantics.

There remains the issue of ratification by the WSSRC. The exact rules for recording a 24 hour record are slightly unusual. Under the rules the two positions must be polled from the on board GPS independently (ie Alex cannot record them on board himself) and must be 24 hour apart accurate to +/- 1 minute. It would appear that the times taken for Thomson's record at 2 minutes apart. The onus is on whoever is polling the positions to ensure this accuracy - awkward in the case of this race where the organisers have consistently been having problems polling the GPSes on board the boats. Whatever distance falls within this period is taken as the record regardless of whether it is 23 hours and 59 minutes or 24 hour and 1 minute.

Strangely there is no extrapolation. While it is understandable that there is no extrapolation upwards ie - if two positions were taken 23 hours and 30 minutes apart but oddly the WSSRC do not accept extrapolation downwards. So two positions 24 hours and 10 minutes apart are considered unacceptible.

Looking ahead at the forecast the gradient breeze is being squeezed by a depression lying over the Azores and a high pressure over Spain. It is up this north-going expressway that the leaders are travelling. The forecast indicates that the boats will continue to have favourable winds but these may decrease in around 48 hours time as the dominate weather feature becomes the high over Spain.