Records league table

Course au Large announce new championship for the world's oceanic sailing records

Over the last decade or so record breaking has become an ever more integral part of the offshore sailing scene. The reasons for this was quite complex - record breaking represents an alternative to conventional boat v boat racing as you are racing a virtual boat sailing different weather conditions. Many passage records are steeped in history, original times having been set by the magnificent clipper ships of the late 19th century. Some genres of ocean racing boats, most notably the new generation of giant G-Class maxi-multihulls, are so fast that sending them out to bring home ocean passage records seems an obvious thing to do. For the non-sailing public record breaking is easy to digest, involving speed and no handicaps, while for sponsors they get the entire gig without having the risk of not winning.

While the timing and ratification of sailing records is handled by the ISAF-recognised World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC), to date there has been no one body set up to create an infrastructure and/or a raison d'etre for the breaking these records. Until now.

In order to give birth to a genuine ocean record circuit, French sailing magazine Course Au Large, in conjunction with leading skippers and G-class maxi-multihulls owners, has drawn up a framework for this to take place.

The Ocean Records World Championship will comprise an annual league table, based on a selection of 20 routes (for both fully crewed and singlehanded attempts) - all certified by the WSSRC. For each record points are awarded weighted according to a coefficient from 1 to 10 according to the difficulty/length of the course.

These 20 routes have been carefully chosen and were scrutinised by the likes of Ellen MacArthur, Bruno Peyron, Franck Cammas, Francis Joyon and Thomas Coville during an informal meeting held during Paris Boat Show last December. This meeting approved the principles of the championship and confirmed the interest of the skippers and G-class owners.

The championship will be separated between crewed and singlehanded records, the winner accruing the maximum number of points. Trophies will be presented at the end of each season to the winning skippers, crewmen, designers and sponsors.

To establish the winner the top ten performances achieved on each route, will be taken without consideration of the time frame. To give value to each attempt, every time will be considered and will determine the number of points awarded, whether the record is broken or not. 10 points will be awarded for each new record set, 9 points for the second best time, 8 for the third and so on.

The Ocean Records World Championship will commence from 1 January 2006. Thanks to the simplicity of the rules, we can already establish who the winners of the annual trophies over the past two years would have been:

For 2004, Francis Joyon ( Idec) would have been on to the top step of the podium in the single-handed category, thanks to his 72-day round the world voyage, while Steve Fossett ( Cheyenne) would of course have been rewarded in the crew records category, thanks especially to his 58-day circumnavigation.

For 2005: The year that has just finished would have then crowned Ellen MacArthur ( Castorama) for her single-handed record around the world in 71 days and Bruno Peyron ( Orange II) for his record over the same route, but with a crew in 50 days. By change both records were improvements on the single-handed and crew performances achieved by the 2004 champions!

The main goal of the Ocean Records World Championship is to encourage team spirit, innovation and entrepreneurship. It also aims to make record achievements clearer to the general public and to reward sporting performance by awarding prize money to the skippers and winning crews.

A special marketing plan is being drawn up. It will fund this prize, and pay for the organisation and communication of the Championship. The plan is to involve 12 major French or international brands within the framework of a publicity campaign to promote the championship.

This communications plan (press, radio, TV, billboards, Internet) will ensure the promotion of the championship and of each individual attempt. The main features will be as follows:

Press: Promotion in daily papers and magazines, as each new record is set
Billboards: National poster campaign
Internet: Creation of an official site to allow people to follow each of the attempts live
Production and distribution to TV stations: Production of footage during the various attempts and distribution to TV stations
Publication: Publication of an 'Ocean Records Book', which will be updated and published at the end of each year
Official film: Production of a DVD film, an annual look back at the records set during the season
Special event: Organisation of an official awards ceremony sometime in January
Public relations: Organisation of a PR operation at the start and finish of the records

The search for the 12 exclusive partners by sector will be based around the following twelve businesses: automobile, bank and insurance, retail, hotel, clocks and watches, computing, property, leather goods, health, transport, wines and spirits, telecommunications.

Some skippers gave their views about the new championship:

Ellen MacArthur ( B&Q/Castorama): "Our single-handed round the world record set last winter was certainly one of the toughest challenges I have ever undertaken, but the general public finds it difficult to appreciate amongst all the other events. Any plan aimed at clarifying the situation and making the results clearer is something, which is excellent for our sport."

Frank Cammas ( Groupama): "It’s an interesting idea to organise a championship based on the existing ocean records. It allows us to regularly update the situation concerning the records and those taking part and thus to bring some excitement to the G.Class and record attempts. It may even lead to organising a direct confrontation (races...) between these boats!"

Bruno Peyron ( Orange): "This idea follows on logically from the discussions we had with all the G.Class skippers, when we were setting up The Race in 2004. This championship will be the occasion to put up for grabs the trophy from The Race, won by Grant Dalton and Franck Proffit, which has been lying around in the headquarters of Club Méditerranée ever since."

Francis Joyon ( Idec): "2004 was a very important year for me, and I believe it’s a really great idea to set up an overall circuit for the major records. It will allow us to reward the achievements made on the various routes around the world’s oceans."

Steve Fossett ( Cheyenne): "The Round the World Record was my highest ambition in sailing. It is very gratifying to receive this recognition."

Thomas Coville ( Sodebo): "This new point of reference is part of the way sailing will be evolving in the future. Rewarding the various records around the planet and bringing them all together in an ocean records world championship will allow us to share even more our passion for ocean racing."

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede ( Adrien): "Lots of different routes can be drawn up with the aim of setting new records, but the classic routes will always be there. The idea of choosing the 20 most famous crossings and establishing an annual championship will develop even more competition between yachtsmen, both in crewed events and in single-handed racing. I'm proud to be the latest monohull in the championship of single-handed sailors."

Crewed records

	Routes	Coef	Record time	Holder
1	Round the world	10	50d, 16h, 20mn, 4s	Bruno Peyron
	(WSSRC)		Mar-05	Orange II
2	Around the world backwards	10	122d, 14h, 3mn, 49s	J.Luc Van Den Heede Adrien
	(WSSRC)		Mar-04
3	North Atlantic	6	04d, 17h, 28mn, 6s	Steve Fossett
	(New York – The Lizard)		Oct-01	PlayStation
4	Gold route	6	57d, 3h, 21mn, 45s	Yves Parlier
	(New York – San Francisco)		1998	Aquitaine Innovations
5	Clipper Route	6	67d, 10h, 26mn	Philippe Monnet
	(Hong Kong – Londres)		1990	Elle & Vire
6	Discovery route	5	09d, 13h, 30mn, 18s	Steve Fossett
	(Cadix – San Salvador)		Feb-03	PlayStation
7	North Pacific	5	14d, 17h, 22mn, 50s	Bruno Peyron
	(Yokohama – San Francisco)		Aug-98	Explorer
8	Round Australia	5	17d, 12h, 57mn, 5s	Olivier de Kersauson Geronimo
	(Sydney – Sydney)		Jul-05
9	24-hour record	4	706,2 milles	Bruno Peyron
	(parcours libre)		29,42 nds – 23 august 2004	Orange II
10	Round the British Isles	4	04d, 16h, 8mn, 54s	Steve Fossett
	(GB and Ireland)		Oct-02	PlayStation
11	Miami – New York	3	02d, 5h, 54mn, 42s	Steve Fossett
			2001	PlayStation
12	Mediterranean Record	2	17h, 56mn, 33s	Bruno Peyron
	( Marseilles – Carthage)		Sep-04	Orange II
13	Indian Ocean	2	09d, 11h, 04mn	Bruno Peyron
	(Cape Agulhas – Tasmania)		Feb-05	Orange II
14	South Pacific	2	08d, 18h, 6mn	Bruno Peyron
	(Tasmania – Cape Horn)		Feb-05	Orange II
15	Transpacific	2	04d, 19h, 31mn	Olivier de Kersauson Geronimo
	(Los Angeles – Honolulu)		Nov-05
16	Sydney – Hobart	2	01d, 18h, 27mn, 10s	Bob Miller
			Dec-99	Mari-Cha III
17	Round the island of Gotland	2	01d, 50mn, 32s	Stefan Myralf
	(Sweden)		Jul-00	Nokia
18	Round the Isle of Wight	1	03h, 10mn, 11s	Francis Joyon
			Jun-01	Dexia Eure & Loir
19	Channel crossing record	1	05h, 23mn, 38s	Brian Thompson
	(Cowes – Dinard)		Sep-02	Maiden II
20	Record SNSM	1	01d, 1h, 37mn, 17s	Thomas Coville
	(Saint-Nazaire-Saint-Malo)		Apr-05	Sodebo

Singlehanded records

	Routes	Coef	Record time	Holder
1	Single-handed round the world (WSSRC)	10	71d, 14h, 18m, 33s	Ellen MacArthur B&Q
			Feb-05
2	Around the world backwards	10	122d, 14h, 3mn, 49s	JL Van Den Heede Adrien
	(WSSRC)		Mar-04
3	North Atlantic	6	06d, 4h, 1mn, 37s	Francis Joyon
	(New York – Cap Lizard)		Jul-05	Idec
4	Gold route	6	-	-
	(New York – San Francisco)
5	Clipper Route	6	67d, 10h, 26mn	Philippe Monnet
	(Hong Kong – London		1990	Elle & Vire
6	Discovery route	5	10d, 11h, 5mn, 46s	Thomas Coville Sodebo
	(Cadix – San Salvador)		Jul-05
7	North Pacific	5	20d, 9h, 52mn, 59s	Steve Fossett
	(Yokohama – San Francisco)		Aug-96	Lakota
8	Round Australia	5	-	-
	(Sydney – Sydney)
9	24-hour record	4	542,7 milles	Francis Joyon
	(free choice of route)		22,6 nds – may 2005	Idec
10	Round the British Isles	4	07d, 8h, 47mn	JL Van Den Heede Adrien
	(GB and Ireland)		May-05
11	Miami – New York	3	03d, 5h, 0mn, 12s	Thomas Coville Sodebo
			Jul-05
12	Mediterranean Record	2	-	-
	( Marseilles – Carthage)
13	Indian Ocean	2	12d,18h, 57mn	Ellen MacArthur B&Q
	(Cape Agulhas – Tasmania)		Dec-04
14	South Pacific	2	12d,13h, 39mn	Ellen MacArthur B&Q
	(Tasmania – Cape Horn)		Jan-05
15	Transpacific	2	07d, 22h, 38mn	Steve Fossett
	(Los Angeles – Honolulu)		Jul-98	Lakota
16	Sydney – Hobart	2	-	-
	(Australia – Tasmania)
17	Round the island of Gotland	2	-	-
	(Sweden)
18	Round the Isle of Wight	1	-	-
19	Channel crossing record	1	12h, 01mn, 31s	JL Van Den Heede Adrien
	(Cowes – Dinard)		Nov-04
20	To be decided	1	-	-