11 year old Atlantic record falls

Francis Joyon sets new solo time from New York to the Lizard

He has done it! Francis Joyon's Idec trimaran passed The Lizard at 12:44:03 GMT today, setting a new outright record for the singlehanded west to east crossing of the Atlantic with a time of 06 days, 04 hours, 01 minutes and 37 seconds. IDEC's average speed for the 2,925 mile course is an impressive 19.75 knots.

The new time of Joyon and his faithful trimaran demolish the previous record for the west to east course set by Laurent Bourgnon on the 60ft trimaran Primagaz in June 1994. This stood at 7 days 2 hours 34 minutes 42 seconds. Joyon has thus taken an impressive 22 hours 33 minutes and 5 seconds off the time or a 14% improvement.

IDEC's time is also 9 hours quicker than the fully crewed transatlantic Atlantic record, set in 1990 by the catamaran Jet Services V and her crew led by Serge Madec, which was beaten only two years ago by Steve Fossett’s maxi catamaran, Playstation.

"It’s all happened so quickly. I haven’t yet come to terms with it," said Joyon on the radio as he passed the Lizard lighthouse. He gave his position by VHF to the official timekeeper from the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC), who had been on station awaiting Joyon's arrival since early this morning.

Crossing the line without slowing down, Joyon turned his 90ft trimaran towards the French coast and headed for home.



Less than a week ago, hardly off the plane from Paris, he was diving under his boat, moored up in a Manhattan marina to clean off her bottom preparing to set sail from New York without delay.

IDEC set sail from New York on Thursday 30th June at 10:42 in an unreliable south westerly. As a result his first day at sea was less than encouraging. "I had to get away from the continent of America," he explained, "and get into the low pressure flow coming down from the North of Canada."

But the next three days went like a dream; the giant red trimaran basking in the strong downwind conditions, her skipper busy concentrating on tweaking the autopilot.

Throughout these first few days, Joyon had been able to stick closely to the great circle On his fourth day at sea, he was forced to head south due to the wind direction, but at this time, IDEC was able to pick up her heels. Eight hours into her third day at sea, IDEC hourly averaged speed exceeded 20 knots and Joyon would stay averaging 20+ knots for the following two days eight hours, regularly averaging over 500 miles each 24 hours.

It was during this period that Joyon set a new outright record for the most number of miles sailed solo in 24 hours, when he covered 543 miles - three more than Laurent Bourgnon's previous best (when Bourgnon had set this record during his crossing in 1994 it was further than any fully crewed boat had sailed in 24 hours...)

Joyon admitted that he was almost unaware of his speed. "It’s as if the boat wanted the record more than me," he Joyon. "We were continually going along between 26 and 28 knots."

Day five was more strategic. The wind backed requiring Joyon to put in a gybe. On port gybe, IDEC was to tackle the final stretch of the course in a strong northwesterly, but also choppy seas. The trimaran slammed into a 3-4m swell forcing Joyon to remain on the helm. He remained tied to the helm, despite his tiredness reverting to autopilot when he had to make sail changes to suit the variations in wind strength.

"I didn’t have much fun during this crazy week," Joyon admits. "The stress was permanent and Laurent (Bourgnon)’s time seemed so difficult to beat so I had to give it my all, right up until the end."

On crossing the line Joyon, from the small town of Loqmariaquer at the mouth of the Morbihan in Southern Brittany was tired, happy, relieved… and above all, very astonished with his achievement. He was especially surprised to have beaten Jet Service V's time. "I was already racing multihulls when Jet set the time of 6 days and 13 hours, which was to remain the outright record for a sailing boat on this crossing for so long (more than 12 years). I know the men, who were on board her, and I never believed I could compete with them."

IDEC is now heading towards her homeport of la Trinité-sur-Mer where she should reach early tomorrow morning.

"I believe the boat was ideal for this record," said Joyon "but she really surprised me with her behaviour, which was marvellous, and what she was capable of at the start of the record in fairly light winds. I know my boat well and can detect her limits without thinking about them."

Other boats, which are more recent, more modern, including Ellen MacArthur's B&Q Castorama and Thomas Coville's 60ft trimaran Sodebo will soon attempt this record. Joyon's new record will not make it easy for them.

Bravo Francis (again).


A historic course

As was recounted repeatedly during the recent Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, the most significant record for the New York to Lizard course was that of Charlie Barr at the helm of Wilson Marshall's Atlantic in 1905 - 12 days and 4 hours in 1905.

This was first broken by Eric Tabarly on the radical foiler trimaran Paul Ricard in 1980, Tabarly taking two days of Atlantic's time. Since then the fully crewed record has been repeatedly lowered by some of the top names in French sailing, until PlayStation set a present fully-crewed record of 4 days, 17 hours and 28 minutes.

The first memorably singlehanded attempt on this record was Bruno
Peyron, on board the maxi-catamaran Ericsson in 1987. Peyron set a time of 11 days, 11 hours and 46 minutes. But this was rapidly reduced when later than year Philippe Poupon took the time down to 10 days 9 hours.

However the most significant time was that of the fearless Swiss sailor Laurent Bourgnon who in 1994 took the time to go below 10 days. On board his 60ft trimaran Primagaz, Bourgnon smashed all known standards, and achieved a new 24 hour record and the solo Atlantic crossing record, which was to remain the record for 11 years.

Prior to Joyon the most recent attempt on the Transat record was made by Ellen MacArthur, on board her trimaran B&Q Castorama, who in June last year finished just one hour outside of Bourgnon's time.