Success at first attempt

Franck Cammas and his Groupama III break Route of Discovery record

On their first attempt at breaking a record, Franck Cammas and his crew on the maxi-trimaran Groupama 3 have succeeded in setting a new time for the Route of Discovery Record from Cadiz to San Salvador in the Bahamas.

The record to beat for Cammas was that of Steve Fossett's PlayStation which in February 2003 set a time of 9 days 13 hours 30 minutes and 18 seconds for the 3880 mile passage (read about this here).

Cammas' 105ft trimaran set sail from Cadiz on Tuesday April 24 at 07:47:17 GMT and reached her destination of 18:46:10 GMT after just 7 days 10 hours 58 minutes and 53 seconds of sea (subject to ratification by the WSSRC). In the process Cammas has taken 2 days 2 hours 31 minutes and 25 seconds off Fossett's record.

Groupama III sailed 3,901 miles at an average of 21.79 knots, compared to just 16.92 for PlayStation.

In the Groupama III crew for this attempt were Franck Proffit, Stève Ravussin, Pascal Blouin, Loic Le Mignon, Bruno Jeanjean, Sébastien Audigane, Frédéric Le Peutrec, Ronan Le Goff and navigator Marcel Van Triest.

Conditions for the record were very light at the start - just 5-8 knots and there were a few difficult hours getting out of the Bay of Cadiz, however the wind filled in allowing Groupama III to make a fast passage to the Canary Islands (a mark of the course with this record), where the big tri by early evening on Wednesday 25 April.

From here Groupama III set out on her first crossing of the Atlantic, taking just four days in trade winds that proved around 2-3 knots stronger than forecast. On 30 April, she scored her slowest day as she passed through a zone of weaker winds and squalls.

Fortunately the wind filled in allow Cammas and his crew to reach the finish line this evening at 18:46:10 GMT

Routing Groupama III shoreside was Jean-Yves Bernot and his team including Wouter Verbraak who writes:

"Groupama was standby from the middle of March to 23 April. Everyday we monitored the weather conditions to look for a favorable weather window. Of course the starting conditions were important, but often this record fails at the end when a big low pressure system destabalises the tradewinds near the Bahamas.

As the team ran out of time, we decided to start on an average to good weather window on 24 April and not wait any longer. Together with Marcel [van Triest] our focus was on finding steady 20-25kn winds and avoid stronger winds 30+ winds.

Though the start in Cadiz was in only 7-8 knots of easterly winds, we quickly managed to pick up the stronger easterly winds in the strait of Gibraltar. One of the challenges with this course is how to handle the lee of the Canary Islands. The lee effect of Gran Canaria stretches 80nm downwind, so we had to make sure we went far enough south before turning west. The crew did an excellent job here skirting the eastern side of Gran Canaria and gybing the boat in 30+ knot winds in the funneled breeze here. We took a gybe south and this set us up nicely for the trades to the south of the Azores High.



Our goal here was to select a weather pattern in which the Azores High was in a rather northerly position, which meant the trades extended further north than usual and we could sail closer to the rhumbline than Playstation did for her attempt. We managed to do this well and really play the corner of the High.



This part of the race was especially challenging as we were riding the front of a new 'NE push' (see sat pic analysis below). Contrary to popular belief the Trades are all but constant in speed and direction. For us it was crucial to stay in the front part of this wave, so we gybed south a couple of times to avoid the shearzone on the edge of the push.



The second part of the race was dominated by more squally conditions. Working together with Marcel and the guys on the boat, we managed to pick some nice squalls in the satellite pictures and ride them west hard.

The last part of the record Jean Yves Bernot took over from me. Conditions got lighter, but Jean Yves found a good wind corridor to the north of the Virgin Islands.

See the tracking here

Read our review from last year about this new boat
The video of when we sailed it with speed freak Paul Larsen
Or our video interview with skipper Franck Cammas

More photos on page 2...