PUMA Win Leg 4 Speed Challenge

A 24-hour run of 527.8 nautical miles has earned Ken Read’s PUMA team the IWC Schaffhausen Speed Record Challenge award for Leg 4.

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, who also set the best 24-hour distance in Leg 3, edged out leg winners Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team by five nautical miles to record the best Leg 4 day’s run on February 29.

Groupama claimed the Leg 2 top daily distance award when they clocked up 478 nm in the Indian Ocean on the way to then secret safe haven port in the Maldives.

However, Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand still hold the current race record after powering to 553 nm in a day on the first leg from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa.

CAMPER’s Leg 1 run was short of the world monohull 24-hour speed record of 596.6 nm set by Ericsson 4 during the 2008-09 race.

The team recording the greatest distance over a 24-hour period in each of the nine legs will receive an IWC Trophy.

The overall fastest time, over the entire eight months of the race, will land all 11 members of the winning crew with an IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12”.

Confidence is high that a new 24-hour race record could be set on Leg 5 when the boats take on the strong winds and big waves of the Southern Ocean on their way to Itajaí in Brazil.

Leg 4 best 24-hour distance from each team:

Puma 527.819 nautical miles

Groupama 522.394

Abu Dhabi 513.213

Telefonica 500.322

Camper 471.679

Sanya 482.95

Puma Win IWC Speed Record

PUMA Ocean Racing may have missed out on a podium position in Leg 3 but they proved Mar Mostro’s potential as they picked up the IWC Speed Record Challenge trophy for the leg with a 24-hour run of 355.89 nautical miles.

Ken Read’s men join the crews of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and Groupama sailing team, recipients of the Legs 1 and 2 distance awards, in the trophy winner's club.

PUMA set the bar late in the leg, sailing the top 24-hour distance on February 4 as they straight-lined past Vietnam towards Sanya.

Skipper Ken Read said the win was proof that he had great boat, which was designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian, and a solid crew capable of anything.

“Imagine what we could have done if we had pulled our mainsail up,” joked Read. "We've always been happy with our boat, and this goes to show we have a persistent crew, doing what they do best -- constantly working to make the boat go faster."

A trophy is awarded at the end of each leg to the team recording the greatest distance over a 24-hour period by the Volvo Ocean Race’s Official Timekeeper IWC Schaffhausen.

The overall greatest 24-hour distance over the entire eight months of the race will land all 11 members of the winning crew with an IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Edition ‘Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12’.

At the moment, CAMPER top the table with a run of 553 nautical miles on November 24 as they blasted through the South Atlantic to Cape Town in Leg 1.

Groupama took the trophy on Leg 2, posting 478.28 nautical miles on December 21 as they sprinted from Cape Town to the Maldives.

Ericsson 4 currently hold the world 24-hour speed record, set during the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race when they recorded 596.6 nm.

However, the new generation Volvo Open 70s, faster and more powerful than their predecessors, have been widely tipped to break the record in this edition of the race.