Yachting: Dalton dodges icebergs for record day's sailing

After weaving around chunks of ice like a racing driver through cones, Grant Dalton has reclaimed his world speed sailing record.

"It's cold out here, but there's warmth in our hearts now we've got the record again," Dalton said from his giant catamaran, Club Med, deep in the Southern Ocean yesterday.

The cat smashed the 24-hour record of 629 hours set by fellow Race contestant Innovation Explorer - setting a new mark of 655 miles.

"We hadn't seen it as important in the big scheme of things - we weren't looking for it," said Dalton, who continues to lead the non-stop round-the-world race on the approach to Cape Horn.

"But now that we've eaten through half our food and used half our fuel, the boat is much lighter and under much less stress."

Club Med hit an average speed of 27.8 knots during the fastest-ever day at sea - even through waters littered with "bergy bits" from icebergs.

"Ed Danby was steering and I went up to the mast and waved my arms around like a traffic warden to steer him through the ice," Dalton said.

"We were weaving around them like road cones, doing 32 knots.

"It was pretty cool. We were the first boat to break 600 miles, and now we're the first to do 650.

"But I can't see the magical 700 mark being broken in my sailing lifetime."

Dalton expects to reach the next milestone, Cape Horn, by Sunday evening.

Innovation Explorer is still 800 miles behind the leader, but Dalton fears Club Med will "hit the Wall" - a big weather trough they have been chasing for the past few days.

In another non-stop circumnavigation race, Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux is expected to take line honours sometime tomorrow in the Vendee Globe single-handed challenge.

Englishwoman Ellen MacArthur has almost conceded defeat as she trails Desjoyeaux by 180 miles in her New Zealand-built boat, Kingfisher.

MacArthur had a fighting chance of overtaking the Frenchman until she hit an unidentified object in the Atlantic during the week.

Herald Online Marine News