LONDON — Ericsson 4 has shattered the 24-hour distance record for a monohull sailing boat on the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, beating the mark set by ABN AMRO 2 in the last race.

Skipper Torben Grael and his crew covered some 590 nautical miles as a much anticipated cold front hit the fleet Tuesday, bringing with it gale force winds and accelerating the high-tech racing boats toward Cape Town. The record is still subject to ratification, but was a vast improvement on ABN AMRO 2's mark of 562.96 miles in the 2006-07 race.

In second place — and also likely to beat the previous record — is Puma skippered by Ken Read, who said that in such demanding conditions, the key would be keeping the boat in one piece.

"We are going to have 30-plus knots for three days now. It's a bit of a drag race now and my guess is ... the first boat that breaks loses," Read said in an interview broadcast on the race Web site. "We have a bit of a buffer to Green Dragon but if you break, all of a sudden people are going to go zooming pass before you can blink an eye. We just hope the old girl hangs in one piece and we'll be good."

Ian Walker, skipper of Green Dragon — currently in third — had predicted that the record would fall as the winds built with the approach of a cold front.

"This is insane — 35 knots of wind, pitch black, 1,500 miles from land and we are desperately trying to squeeze more speed from a boat that feels and sounds like it is going to self destruct any second," Walker said in an e-mail from his boat Tuesday. "We have to push hard to stay ahead of the front."

The lead boats now have some 1,600 miles to cover to Cape Town.

There are 10 race legs and six in-port regattas where teams can score points before crossing the finish line in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June next year.