Waitara sailor Bruce Arms is on target to smash the solo-around-Australia sailing record.

"The record is 42 days; I'm aiming at doing it in 35," Arms said yesterday.

He said his 14-metre catamaran, Big Wave Rider, is 62 hours ahead of the existing race record about 363km north east of Exmouth, on Australia's west coast.

The 52-year-old, who left his home port of Mooloolaba on June 10, has about 7000 kilometres left to sail of the 12,405km circumnavigation, averaging 8.2 knots (15kmh) for the voyage so far.

High winds powered his lilac-coloured catamaran to a quick passage through the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, but he has been challenged by light winds in recent days.

"One of the sailor's worst nightmares is to run out of wind. You just can't get anywhere when the sails are banging and crashing in the swell; it's very hard on the nerves," he said.

"Yesterday it looked good for a dip. Then I spotted a shark circling the boat, which put paid to that idea."

Arms said there was some light humour as well as light winds.

"A coastwatch [surveillance plane] flew over again today and radioed me with the usual questions – port of registration, last port of call and next port of call. I answered Mooloolaba, Mooloolaba, Mooloolaba, which gets them thinking and brings on a bit of silence on the radio," he said.

In about seven days, Arms will be at Cape Leeuwin, Australia's southwest corner, where he will face stormy southern ocean conditions for 2800km across the southern end of Australia.

Arms won the 2007 solo Tasman yacht race from New Plymouth to Mooloolaba in Big Wave Rider and also took line honours in last year's Fitzroy Yachts-sponsored New Plymouth-to-Mooloolaba singlehanded yacht race in his self-built yacht.

He sailed the 1998 singlehanded Tasman yacht race in a 9.4m keeler, Skiddy Too.

His Waitara-based cousin, Steven Arms, also sailed that race in his new Chamberlin catamaran, Nitro, and last month won the multihull division in the Auckland-to-Suva race.

You can follow Arms' progress at acssatellite.com.au/products/tracking-portal/bruce-arms-solo-around-australia.html.