4 days 03 hours 57 minutes 54 seconds

Franck Cammas' Groupama III smashes west to east transatlantic record

When in 2001 Steve Fossett and the crew of PlayStation took the Atlantic record down from 6 days 13 hours to 4 days 17 hours most figured that it would be at least a decade before their record would fall. However the advent of a new generation of giant G-class maxi multihulls has come along capable of even higher straight line speeds. And so Bruno Peyron's 120ft catamaran Orange II last year raised the bench mark to 4 days 8 hours 23 minutes and last night Franck Cammas' brand new 105ft trimaran Groupama III has raised it still further making the crossing between Ambrose Light, off New York harbour and Cornwall's Lizard Point in just 4 days 03 hours 57 minutes 54 seconds (the time still awaiting ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council).
For this voyage Cammas and his crew sailed 2976 miles, around 111 more than the great circle and less than Orange II, at a phenomenal AVERAGE speed of 28.67 knots, finishing off the Lizard at 22:00:49 GMT last night bettering Orange II's record by 4 hours and 26 minutes.

In the process they also set a new 24 hour record for speed under sail covering 794 miles in one day at an average of 33.1 knots.

This is the fourth record set by Cammas and his nine crew, on this occasion including Franck Proffit, Steve Ravussin, Frédéric le Peutrec, Bruno Jeanjean, Sebastien Audigane, Yann Guichard, Ronan le Goff, Loïc Le Mignon and Pascal Blouin, following the Route of Discovery, Miami-New York, the 24 hour record. In short, a superb effort by Cammas and his team.