The local entry in the Clipper Round the World Race is second place and battling to keep up with the leaders.
The Derry “LondonDerry” Doire yacht is currently 10 miles behind leading boat GREAT Britain with OneDLL in third place.
The fleet have faced strong winds and challenging conditions in the last 24 hours, and with team OneDLL reportedly experiencing wind speeds in excess of 44 knots, there’s no surprise that Henri Lloyd has set a new Clipper 70 speed record reaching over 30 knots yesterday.
Race director, Justin Taylor says: “Reported wind speeds have provided perfect conditions for the yachts to produce surfing speeds of 20 plus knots and skipper Eric Holden on board Henri Lloyd has reported a top speed of 30.7 knots. These speeds are pretty much what we expected from the performance of the Clipper 70.
“What makes them even more remarkable is that many of the skippers are sailing conservatively, at least until they have bedded their crews in more and they become more skilled at helming and sailing the boats in these fantastic offshore conditions.”
The fleet is competing in Race 2 of the 40,000 mile challenge – a 5,000 mile crossing to Brazil.
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