Record run for Team Russia

Kosatka has now made a triumphant return to her base in Portland, on the south coast of England, after six and a half days at sea.

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Faced with gale force, southwesterly winds, navigator, skipper Andreas Hanakamp and Wouter Verbraak decided the conditions were ripe for a tilt at the record set by Solune in May 2004 of 7 days, 4 hours, 46 minutes and 22 seconds.

As it transpired, Team Russia shaved 15 hours off that mark. The only sticking point is that the record will not be officially ratified by the world speed council as they did not have a representative inspect the boat before it set off, despite Kosatka recently being measured by the race’s chief measurer, James Dadd.

The first 24 hours were challenging with 40 knot winds gusting up to 50 in the English Channel and Straits of Dover. As the boat began its journey into the North Sea the wind eased.

In the lighter conditions, the crew were able to test the latest generation of sails, evaluate communications equipment and generally brush up on their team work.

The radical spray rails on the bow of the Humphreys-designed Volvo Open 70 lived up to their reputation with noticeable improvement in high speed sailing, but they produce a serious amount of spray.

It was a brisk ride all the way from the Shetlands to the Irish Sea. In beam reaching conditions Kosatka excelled and even though they ran north of Ireland in lighter winds and a nasty swell from several directions, they easily clocked a 420-mile day.

Constantly monitoring a low-pressure system that rolled in from the Atlantic Ocean, they set themselves up to round its centre in the west and ride the back down across the Irish Sea towards the Scillies in 25-30 knots of wind. Conditions remained perfect to blast them home to the finish in Portland.

Verbraak was delighted with the boat’s performance during the qualifier and content that some of the foundations have been laid for the road ahead. “The Volvo is first of all a race to get the team around the world, then a race to get the boat around the world, and then a real race for points and glory,” he said.

“This qualifier has given us some great building blocks for the first two, and so we are now preparing ourselves for the real stuff in less then two months.”