North Atlantic solo record smashed twice in one week

Thomas Coville has set a new solo transatlantic record of under four-and-a-half days. Coville and the trimaran Sodebo Ultim made the eastward crossing in just 4d 11h 10m 23s. Just five days previously, Francis Joyon had taken 49 minutes off his own North Atlantic solo record in IDEC Sport.

Both solo skippers were returning to Europe after competing in The Bridge, which pitted crewed multihulls against the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner in a race to New York. En route back to France, both took on the eastward record from Ambrose Light, New York, to Lizard Point.

After setting off with little fanfare, Joyon set his latest solo eastbound transatlantic time of 5d 2h 7m on 12

July on IDEC Sport, a trimaran originally designed to be crewed by 12 sailors.

“I only just did it,” commented the Breton sailor. “I was pleased to finish, as over the past 24 hours, it has been very tiring. My autopilots weren’t working well, so I had to stay at the helm all the time over the past 24 hours, while carrying out manoeuvres in a lot of squalls with the boat slamming into the seas.”

“I set off from New York in a hurry,” he added. “I didn’t even have time to sort out the supplies. I just bought some eggs and bananas.” So unprepared was Joyon’s attempt that he set off in upwind conditions for the first 24 hours.

“I could see the Queen Mary 2 setting off for Europe. I said to myself that as we didn’t manage to beat her on the way out from Saint-nazaire, maybe I could finish in Brittany before she docked in Southampton.” (He did).

Meanwhile, Coville’s sub-five day transatlantic saw him sail 3,039 miles at an average speed of 28.35 knots.

“The five-day time [to cross the North Atlantic] is such a mythical solo limit!

Four days and 11 hours... This is just fabulous!” Coville said on arrival.

“I probably did not sleep much more than three to four hours in four days. Backing yourself in a corner like this is not possible in a circumnavigation because you cannot recover. But knowing that you have only five days, you give everything. It’s very galvanising!”

Joyon’s and Coville’s almost perfectly choreographed exchange of records has been going on for 20 years now. Coville has been part of two Jules Verne Trophy crews, but it is Joyon who is the current holder of the crewed round the world record, having skippered IDEC Sport to a 40-day circumnavigation in January 2017.

A month earlier, it was Coville who set an incredible solo round the world record time of 49 days, taking the record from none other than Joyon.

‘I DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO SORT OUT THE SUPPLIES. I JUST BOUGHT SOME EGGS AND BANANAS’