Extreme 40 Volvo Ocean Race sets record time around Dutch offshore windmill park
The first record time for sailing around the offshore windmill park Egmond aan Zee (NL) has been officially set at the time of 2 hours, 19 minutes and 19 seconds. On the third of September five Dutch top sailors departed from IJmuiden on an Extreme 40 Catamaran. Within two hours and twenty minutes they were back at their starting point at HISWA te water, one of Holland’s biggest annual boat shows.
Skipper and catamaran specialist Herbert Dercksen was content: “It can be done faster. At the start we couldn’t make much speed because of the high waves and strong wind. Nevertheless we achieved 25 knots almost 50 km/hour). We reached the last windmill relatively quickly. Once we sailed around it we put up the spinnaker and flew direction IJmuiden at full speed. According to our GPS we reached a top speed of 29.7 knots (almost 60 km/hour).
The goal of the sailors was to sail around the park as fast as possible. The park is situated 10-18 kilometres from the coast of Egmond aan zee and covers an area of approximately 27 km2. The 36 windmills in this area have been placed by Shell and Nuon and provide ‘green’ electricity for over 100.000 households. -http://www.extreme40.org/
