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TeamVodafoneSailing has finished the Auckland to Musket Cove, Fiji Ocean Race in a new best time of 101 hours, 5 minutes and 5 seconds.
The trimaran, owned and skippered by Simon Hull, crossed the finish line in Fiji at 1905hrs today, after 1,150 nautical miles of sailing.
It set the previous record in the 2011 race, sailing hard to beat Emirates Team New Zealand's boat, Camper, into the finish line by less than 20 minutes.
The four days of sailing in this year's event offered up a bit of everything, and crewman Stu MacKinven said this afternoon "We have had an awesome couple of hours, we didn't drop below 25 knots of boatspeed and our top speed today was 35.4 knots."
The boat averaged 28 knots for hours at a time this afternoon, but that was the only time it really had the opportunity to stretch its legs, says Skipper Simon Hull.
"It felt like a long hard race for only being a couple of hours quicker than last time. We had a fantastic day today," says Simon
The next boat to finish will probably be the keeler V5, owned by David Nathan, and with Olympic Silver Medallist Blair Tuke onboard. V5 is expected to arrive in Musket Cove tomorrow.
The RNZYS also extends its congratulations to Vision, skippered by Kerry and Steve Mair, which finished at 1626hrs after a week at sea. Vision entered the cruising division of the race, and reportedly had a terrific time and enjoyed excellent sailing, missing much of the rough seas that other boats encountered.
The Auckland to Musket Cove Ocean Race is organised by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and is supported by Manson Anchors, PredictWind.com, and TNL GAC Pindar. It started at midday on Saturday 1 June.
For more information:
Visit www.rnzys.org.nz for bulletins and access to the Yellowbrick tracker, and also check in at the RNZYS Facebook page for photos and commentary.
