And he's off

Thomas Coville sets sail to beat Francis Joyon's solo Transat record

Thomas Coville started his attempt on the singlehanded west to east North Atlantic record today, Wednesday 9th July at 0747 hours local time (1147 GMT).

Coville's 32m maxi trimaran Sodebo set off in a 16 knot southwesterly and this is set to fill rapidly to around 20 knots. “I am really keen to set off, I've been waiting for this for years” Coville said excitedly yesterday.

Sodebo left Brooklyn Harbour yesterday, Tuesday, shortly before 1800 hours (local time). While awaiting the optimum weather she remained under tow the whole night while on board, a crew of five people kept watch to enable Coville to sleep and concentrate as he awaited the green light from his weather routers in France.

To beat the record set by Francis Joyon in 2005, Coville will have to cross the Atlantic in less than 6 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and 37 seconds. “Maintaining the speed of the Sodebo at an average of over 19.75 knots for 2,980 miles for nearly six days remains an achievable performance” he says. Sodebo is the present holder of the solo 24 hour speed record holder, having covered 619.3 miles at an average of 25.8 knots.

As regards the forecast Sodebo's routing team of Richard Silvani and Christian Dumard claim: “The southwesterly air flow at the start will take Thomas as far as Cape Race and then on to the southwest of Newfoundland on Friday afternoon. A low stretching over from Canada will see the wind fill in slightly after Newfoundland on Saturday night. It is with this same low that he is set to complete the course.”

As far as ice is concerned, this has almost totally disappeared from the course with the onset of summer: “Throughout the record I’m going to be like a well supported and highly guided tightrope walker. You spend your time on the tracks just as you do on a ski piste, which has already been skied and you stay on that track for as long as you can” explained Coville before the start