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Cadiz - San Salvador

Francis Joyon : "I think I have placed the bar quite high up"

vendredi 15 février 2013 – Redaction SSS [Source RP]

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With a race time of 8 days, 16 hours, 07 minutes, 05 seconds, Francis Joyon knocked more than 1 day and 4 hours off his own record time from 2008 (9 d 20 h 35 min). Over the 3884 miles of the Great Circle route, the theoretical route between Cadiz and San Salvador, via Gran Canaria, he took the average speed up to 18.66 knots, having actually sailed 4379.5 miles at an average speed of 21.04 knots.


Francis has thus managed to set an incredible time on a route, which it cannot be stressed enough, is made extremely complicated due to the many different weather systems you encounter along the way.

“A record pace from New York / the Lizard is achieved on the edge of just one system that is clear and going in the right direction, so needs to be followed all the way to Ireland,” explained Francis ; the Columbus Route on the other hand is very complicated ; you cannot only rely on one system. You have to change systems 3 times, which automatically involves tricky transitional phases.”

Francis knows that his record will be targeted by many others, and that is something that he is happy about ;

“I think I have placed the bar quite high up,” he admitted, “I hope the record will stand for a while and that my future challengers will enjoy themselves…”

Holder of three of the four most significant solo sailing records, the round the world voyage, the 24-hour record and the Columbus Route, Francis Joyon is quite naturally aiming to try his hand again at the reference time between New York and the Lizard. IDEC is due to head for the Big Apple in the spring to go on stand-by, which this time will likely be longer…

Voir en ligne : Info presse Mer & Média / www.trimaran-idec.com

What he said :

Huge satisfaction

“My immediate reaction is one of huge satisfaction… and tiredness. I haven’t yet come to terms with it, as I’m still sailing, but the pleasure of completing the voyage in less than 9 days is obvious. I set off hoping to set a decent time. I got off to a quick start back in 2008, but the end was much harder. This year, it was the other way around. My biggest fear is always getting stuck in an area of calm, but that didn’t happen. The boat sailed very quickly for some time. In the first part, the heavy seas slowed us down. Then, there were some great moments honing along. I flirted with peak speeds of 30 knots, but as we face the oncoming prevailing weather systems, we often experience difficult seas, which are not favourable for very high speeds…”

Hello San Salvador… and goodbye !

“I finished in the dark of night off the island of San Salvador, where not many people live, so there were very few lights. We have to round some major headlands, which are not lit and on the GPS we were close to a coral reef. I called up Mr. Clifford Fernandez from the WSSRC, who found a little boat to take him out to see me cross the line. I furled the gennaker and he came on board. After 5-10 minutes, I hoisted the sail again to avoid drifting towards the coast. They got off and I set off again without even seeing a single tree… I’m currently on my way down towards the French West Indies.”

Le maxi-trimaran IDEC

“There are still a few minor improvements that can be made, but in general this is a good boat, which is well designed, well built and had been tried and tested. We can still work on a few details and on the sails…”

Never-tiring Francis

"Personally, you can’t fine-tune me as much as the boat. The years are slipping by and recently I became a grandfather. You have to avoid time taking its toll by doing lots of sporting activities between these sailing trips, in order to be able to cope with the demands of the trimaran…"

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