Fresh adventure for Joyon

OSTAR, Fastnet and Round the Island winner to attempt solo non-stop sailing record

This winter, French multihull sailor Francis Joyon will be making an attempt to beat the round the world single-handed record under sail, on board Olivier de Kersauson's former trimaran, renamed IDEC, the name of the first partner to join the 'Aventure Ultime' project.

In the shipyard in Brest until the end of August to be put into her 'solo' configuration, the great IDEC trimaran will be launched at the beginning of September and head for her training base in Trinité sur Mer where she will remain on stand-by from the month of November.

Joyon's objective is to beat the record which has been held for 15 years by Olivier de Kersauson on a multihull in a little over 125 days and to beat the absolute solo circumnavigation record under sail set by Michel Desjoyeaux in the last Vendée Globe, in a just over 93 days. But beyond the purely sporting performance aspect, this will be the greatest human adventure of Joyon's life.

In the wake of Alain Colas, Philippe Monnet and Olivier de Kersauson

Aside from the pioneers like Nigel Tetley in the Sunday Times Golden, three individuals have attempted to break the non-stop round the world record on a mulithull, each leaving indelible souvenirs.

First of all was Alain Colas, at the helm of Manureva in 1974, experiencing the most intense moments of his life as he rounded the Cape Horn 'the hard way', in homage to anonymous crews lost at sea over the centuries in these waters. Then Philippe Monnet, in 1987 on Kriter, discovering the exhilaration of being alone at the helm of an overly powerful machine surfing the waves of the Southern Ocean... Lastly, Olivier de Kersauson, the year after who set out on his faithful trimaran Un autre regard. The 'Admiral's' described his impression of this extreme voyage as "having lived for two months with a revolver held to his head."

This adventure is not for the faint-hearted, which is precisely why Francis is doing it.

Francis Joyon

Opinionated, a single-hander by choice, tough and tenacious, Francis Joyon is from the generation of yachtsmen who cannot envisage sailing as anything other than a voyage, and preferably a long distant one. Clocking up his finest sailing hours singlehanded, after having struggled for days to fight off fatigue and the adversity of the ocean, Joyon has earned the respect and admiration of his peers.

Something of an Erik the Red, capable of staying at the helm for weeks on end, more a mariner than a skipper, and with the maturity acquired over thousands of miles covered sailing distant oceans, Joyon now wishes to set himself the greatest challenge in his life as a man of the sea. A challenge which can be summed up as - alone, around the world on a multihull... the ultimate adventure, where the most difficult conditions a yachtsman could possibly imagine are all to be found, an unlikely mixture of the worst difficulties for the greatest maritime event ever, the absolute record around the world alone !

On board Olivier de Kersauson's former trimaran...

Three hulls, 27m long, the trimaran selected for this 'ultimate adventure' is none other than Olivier de Kersauson's loyal steed Sport Elec with which he won the Jules Verne Trophy in 1997.

The history of the Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost-designed trimaran , began with its construction in 1986 under the name of Poulain. She often underwent transformations, and successively bore the names Un autre regard under which de Kersauson made this voyage, Charal, Lyonnaise des eaux-Dumez, Sport-Elec to her current name Trophée Jules Verne.

Throughout her previous lives, she continued to evolve, increasing her performance as time went, with the modification of her floats in 1993, a new mast in 1994, and new rigging in 1994 and 1996. The newly-renamed IDEC will stay in the yard in Brest throughout the month of August to be refitted for sailing solo (in keeping with her original configuration for her first race, the Route du Rhum 1986).

In September, she will then move to her base in La Trinité-sur-Mer for training and optimisation with the aim of being on stand-by ready for a possible start in the month of November.