By SUZANNE McFADDEN
Grant Dalton is stunned - he has broken two world speed records without breaking anything on his new super-catamaran.
The Kiwi skipper eased his boat Club Med into the El Salvador capital of San Salvador, yesterday, shaving almost two days off the east-west transatlantic record which stood for 12 years.
Before the journey, his aim was to get the cat across the ocean in one piece.
After shattering the world 24-hour speed record during the 10-day trip from Cadiz, Spain, the cat would have to assume the title of the world's fastest sailing boat.
After all, other boats built for The Race - next year's non-stop circumnavigation contest - have crashed or burned on their maiden voyages.
But Dalton is reluctant to accept the crown - instead accepting a duel with rival round-the-world catamaran PlayStation to determine which is faster.
Club Med, the 33.5m cat launched only five weeks ago, covered Christopher Columbus' route of discovery in 10d 14h 53m and 44s.
It was over 45 hours quicker than record-holder French boat Jet Services V, which set the mark in 1988.
Dalton is now after Jet Services' other record, the more elusive west-east transatlantic passage, and will have a crack at that late next month.
It could be on that crossing that he comes up against American millionaire Steve Fossett and PlayStation - a boat which has had its share of knocks since it was launched in Auckland last year.
Club Med, on the other hand, came through the record run - averaging speeds of 15 knots - without even snapping a halyard.
"Not one single thing broke and that surprises me after everyone else's troubles," Dalton said. "But that's a credit to our designers and builders.
"We have a couple of small problems to deal with - a leak in the front beam and a little bit of movement in the carbon back aft. But we'll just hack in and have a look before we shoot off again."
The boat regularly reached speeds of over 30 knots, and covered a startling 625 miles in 24 hours along the way.
But Dalton reckons it can still go faster.
"It's a raw machine. We could get another 10 per cent, or maybe more, out of it," he said.
Dalton also wants to do some fine tuning of his crew before The Race: "we haven't quite got the right mix of skill and grunt yet."
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