Sailing Solo round the world recordFrancis Joyon completed an amazing solo circumnavigation just before dawn yesterday when he pulverised the single-handed record by more than 20 days.
The Frenchman, sailing the 90-foot trimaran IDEC, completed his round-the-world voyage in 72 days, 22 hours and 54 minutes. "I'm really happy to be home," he said in Brest yesterday. The loneliness of his trip was "difficult, long," he added. "You are really alone."
His record will almost certainly stand for years. The boat is as big as one man can handle - many had expressed doubts Joyon could do it, especially on an average of four hours' sleep a day - and the weather favoured his every move, Joyon eschewing an on-shore meteorologist to plan his own route.
It lays down the benchmark for Ellen MacArthur, who recently launched a 75-foot trimaran, B&Q, to attempt this and similar records.
"I feel," she said, "that he has completed something not only extraordinary but in an incredibly successful way. To complete a solo non-stop voyage around the world is an incredible feat; to complete it in the time Francis has, just goes to show what is achievable with determination, strength and courage."
Joyon's time beat the solo record of 93 days held by Michel Desjoyeaux - in a monohull - and the multihull solo record of 125 days set by Olivier de Kersauson in 1988-1989. The record for a fully crewed boat is held by Bruno Peyron, who claimed the Jules Verne Trophy with 64 days, eight hours 37 minutes in 2002.
Joyon's performance was achieved on a shoestring budget. De Kersauson used the same boat in 1997 to sail round the world fully crewed.
Joyon was two days faster in passing the Cape of Good Hope and eight hours faster, after the gruelling passage across the Southern Indian Ocean, to Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia.
He was using the same mainsail and much of the same gear De Kersauson and his crew had used in 1997, because his prime sponsor dropped out and there was little more than the £300,000 charter fee for the boat available from his sponsor, IDEC.
That led to the failure of the mainsail deep in the Pacific section of the Southern Ocean and forced Joyon to climb the 100-foot mast to effect repairs.
He also had to repair one of the daggerboards that stop the boat from sliding sideways, and was hampered by a hole in the port hull for the last 2,000-odd miles; he could not reach it from the deck to repair it.
The hazards became greater the closer he got to home. He radioed, with three days to go: "I'm trying to limit the risk of collision by going quicker during the day and slowing down at night. In the North Atlantic there are quite a few things floating in the water. As there are a lot of cargo ships, there are also containers as well as logs, which fall overboard in rough weather."
MacArthur, currently fitting out B&Q in Auckland, realises how Joyon's feat has affected her. "With regard to the round-the-world record attempt, all I can say for now is that we shall see. I have always maintained we want to test her (B&Q) thoroughly in the conditions she would see in a round-the-world record attempt and then make the call."
B&Q will be sailed back to Britain, to Cape Horn with a crew and then single-handedly by MacArthur to her base at Cowes.
"My sights are firmly set on getting home for the transatlantic record which is without doubt our first goal."
... Guardian Service
