Issue date
At 20:59:50 hours ZST on Tuesday 5 June 2012, the Orma 60 Team Vodafone Sailing, skipped by Simon Hull, crossed the finish line in Noumea, New Caledonia to set a new multihull race record in the Evolution Sails Sail Noumea race.
'The last five hours have been character building to say the least,' said an exhausted yet excited Simon Hull as he finally returned to solid ground. 'It was like pulling teeth, I have never been becalmed for that long before and hope to never go through that again!
The new record stands at 3 days 6 hours 59 minutes and 50 seconds. The previous was 4 days, 3 hours, 33 minutes and 22 seconds set by Rogntudjuu in 2002.
This record sheds some positive light on the race which has been tough going for many boats:
- Beau Geste retired and went to Norfolk Island with significant damage to the deck and hull,
- Starlight Express retired due to mast and sail damage and are returning to NZ,
- Carerra has retired due to water damage to their inverter and resulting all navigational equipment and are returning to NZ
- Cotton Blossom 2 retired due to crew sickness and due to arrive back in New Zealand on Wednesday.
- Icebreaker suspended racing for safety reasons and are also headed to Norfolk Island to check keelbolts
Ten of the original 16 boats are still racing after one finished, one has suspended, and four have retired. The TP52 named V5 is expected to be the second boat in to Noumea sometime on Thursday or early Friday.
Follow live tracking of the event online www.sailnoumea.com or 
