The crew of Tracy Edwards’s Maiden 2 set off from Southampton this morning on another record attempt. This time, they are going for the Channel record from Cowes to St Malo, which means beating the time set by Steve Fossett in Playstation in December 2001 of 6h 21m 54s.

The mixed crew skippered by Brian Thompson crossed the start line off Cowes at 0920 this morning in ideal conditions -16 knots TWS from the north-east – and left through the western Solent.

“We will lose a bit of time making our way to the Needles but we are expecting 23 knots of breeze out in the channel so we should make up the time then,” commented Brian Thompson. “We are experiencing very similar conditions to those which we had on PlayStation, when we only averaged 16 knots for the first hour and then spent the rest of the time catching up, so we will see how things progress this time.” Thompson is hoping to beat his own record today, having been aboard PlayStation when they set the existing time.

To set a new record, they will have to maintain an average of over 21.68 knots. Should they manage this, it will be their third speed record this summer. The 24-hour record belongs to Maiden 2, as does a new Round Britain and Ireland record set just two weeks ago.