Hey Wouter,

They are in now and have beaten the old record. They could have done even better if not for having rudder damage!

"The damage to the rudder? We lost between 6 and 8 hours with this incident with the rudder, but really it’s not that serious, even if we know we could do better and the boat deserved better. But I’ll say it again, it doesn’t really matter. It gives our friends and enemies a bit of a chance to try and beat us… and it will give us another chance to come back and try again, even if it wasn’t deliberate."

I think this kind of racing is exciting and admirable. It takes incredible resources, desire, organization, planning, skill, and good fortune (the ocean is littered with obstacles). I take the GPS out on the iceboats I sail here on Lake Erie and these giant multihull speeds are as high or higher as we commonly do in the winter on hard water. One wrong move for a crewman and it could be their last as recently proven on the Volvo race. I would love a daysail on one of these machines but I'm happy to watch these trans-oceanic sprints!!