The Sunseeker XS Racing Team has blown apart its own world speed endurance record and racked up five other honours in the process
At 0928 this morning, Yarmouth Harbour welcomed home its adopted sons of the moment when Ian Sanderson from Lymington, and Peter Dredge, the RYA Powerboat Racing Manager from Locks Heath, raced in to set new benchmarks for six, 12, 18 and 24-hour endurance powerboating.
Covering 1,100 nautical miles in 24 hours set a massive average of 45.83 knots for the Hampshire-based crew and broke their own record, set earlier this year in Dubai, by a massive 464 miles.
Helming a standard production Sunseeker XS2000 power cruiser, driven by twin 450hp Yanmar turbo-diesel engines, Sanderson and Dredge established averages of 61.65 knots for six hours, 54.16 knots for 12 hours and 47.22 knots for 18 hours, before setting a 45.83 knot marker for the full distance that will be hard to beat.
“When we clocked 650 miles in the first twelve hours and exceeded our full day’s run in Dubai, we felt that there was something special in the air and it just got better from there onwards,” said Sanderson. “The boat performed as well as we know it can and the Yanmars never missed a beat, which is some big tribute to British and Japanese engineering and the way in which our crew brought it all together.”
The trophies for the four World records, were presented by Richard Campbell-Walter on behalf of Reed Travel Exhibitions to Sanderson, Dredge and PJ Stevens, the team’s fitness coach, who rode onboard for 20 of its 24 hours.
Asked why they had set themselves such a target, Ian Sanderson stated that this record attempt together with the Round Britain and London-Monte Carlo challenges later this summer were all part of testing the Sunseeker product that will be used extensively next year in the world’s first cost capped ‘arrive and drive’ offshore racing series in Europe and the Gulf.
All record times and speeds are subject to ratification by the Union Internationale Motonautique, the world governing body of powerboating.
