Three years ago, ABN AMRO Two clocked 562.96 miles in 24 hours on her way to Cape Town. Gerd-Jan Poortman (NED) was on the team at the time, but this morning he lost his record to Ericsson 4. In his first reaction from the nav station on board of Delta Lloyd, he said: “I expected the record to be broken and I am happy that I had it for such a long time. The current VO 70’s are even faster, so hopefully they will hit the 600 miles. I am sure they can.”

Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael (BRA) and his crew were close. They covered 590 in 24 hours. “They have the same yacht designer as we had, so Juan Kouyoumdjian used the strong points of the white and black boats for his new design and the team is very well trained”. continued Poortman.

Delta Lloyd is taking it a bit easier on this first leg. Poortman said “You should do what you are capable of and our goal is to arrive safely and in one piece in Cape Town. We won’t tempt ourselves to take as many risks as the leading pack does. If they make a mistake, we will catch them.”

At the moment of contact (noon GMT), the Delta Lloyd was in the eye of a low pressure area. Poortman: “We just had 35 knots of wind and we are back to 18 knots now, so we took out the reef. It is difficult racing with many sail changes. I am exhausted. We certainly miss our training hours in these conditions. The Ericsson guys have practised for two years, so they can push hard, whereas we experience our first big winds as a team on board the Delta Lloyd. We are not ready to break the record yet.”

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 October 2008 )