Sebastien Josse and his VOR team aboard ABN AMRO TWO have broken the 24 hour record run, pushing aside the previous record of 546 nautical miles set by senior brethren Mike Sanderson on ABN AMRO ONE during leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race.

This young and relatively inexperienced crew has broken the record for a second time, achieving 558 nautical miles in the past 24 hour period. Her average speed was 23.3 knots. This record will be presented to the World Sailing Speed Record Council for official ratification.

Speeds are high throughout the fleet. The pirates on the Black Pearl (Paul Cayard) have achieved a run of 540 nm, and fourth placed movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has managed 510.

Team ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) is now over 800 nm behind the leader after suffering damage to their mainsail luff track.

This is the second time on this leg that the Aussie battlers have had a problem with the track. On the first occasion, they were able to make a repair which enabled them to either hoist a full mainsail, or a sail shortened to the second reef point. But, as they were pushing hard to get across the bottom of the low pressure which had formed in their path, they ripped the track off the mast again, this time at the second reef halyard lock which was far worse.

They are now only able to hoist the mainsail with a third reef in, which drastically reduces the sail area and therefore the boat speed. “What can we do out here?” wrote a very frustrated Grant Wharington this morning. “Nothing. This is the kind of repair which gets done on the ground with the rig out. We will have to just battle on with what we have.”

Current positions
1 ABN1 42 14.54S, 082 10.83E

2 ABN2 41 17.77S, 076 58.43E 00233 miles from leader

3 POTC 41 24.96S, 075 44.51E 00288 miles from leader

4 MOVI 40 57.05S, 074 50.01E 00331 miles from leader

5 AUS1 40 56.64S, 061 34.32E 00926 miles from leader

6 BRA1 38 54.59S, 028 43.77E 02416 miles from leader

7 ERIC 33 57.56S 025 37.90E Retired from Leg 2