One record or two?

Solo sailor Jean-Luc van den Heede aiming at fully crewed round Britain record too..

After six and a half days of racing against the clock around the British Isles, so later this afternoon Jean-Luc Van den Heede and his faithful 26m alumunium steed Adrien are expected to pass through the Strait of Dover and from there will head directly to the finish line off Ventnor on the south side of the Isle of Wight.

For the last 24 hours van den Heede has been unable to get any sleep as he negotiates the numerous obstacles in the North Sea - oil platforms, sand banks and heavy shipping. The wind is now 10-15 knots from the southeast - a little too southeast for VDH's taste as he is now upwind on port tack.

According to his expert router and meteorologist Pierre Lasnier, the wind will continue to veer south at the beginning of the afternoon, allowing Adrien to tack and crack off once she is past Dover. The southerly wind will remain at 10-15 knots, occasionally gusting to 20 overnight until VDH's arrival, says Lasnier. Fast reaching, Adrien should only take around eight hours to reach the finish line from Dover.

"The weather conditions last night perhaps will prevent me from beating another record - the fully crewed monohull Round Britain record set exactly a year ago (in May 2004) by the French crew of Solune in 7 days, 4 hours, 46 minutes and 22 seconds (with more than 10 knots average speed). To better that I would need to cross the line tomorrow morning before 04h51...

"I am very happy with how Adrien and I have progressed since the start with the assistance of Pierre Lasnier. If I do well my ETA at Ventnor will possibly be around 0500 tomorrow morning and this will be a good advance on the solo monohull round the British Isles record."

So dawn tomorrow at Ventnor there will be much biting of nails to see if VDH is able to beat the fully crewed record as well. Once over the line and the record is approved by the WSSRC, VDH will head for Cherbourg where he will make a short stopover mid-afternoon, before returning to his homeport of Les Sables d'Olonne.