‘IN THE END IT CAME DOWN TO THE SKIPPER’S JUDGEMENT’

Few would have bet on Francis Joyon winning this Route du Rhum, but the 62-year-old is not a sailor who should ever be underestimated.

Joyon is the current holder of the Jules Verne round the world crewed non-stop record, having led a team of six around the planet in 40d 23h 30m and 30s last winter, clocking up an incredible 24-hour run of 894 miles in the process.

In 2003 Joyon set the first ever solo non-stop around the word record in a multihull, on the catamaran IDEC. No-one had attempted it non-stop solo in a multihull before that point as it was considered so risky. Five years later he reset the solo record, in a new Irens-designed trimaran, in 57d 13h, which stood for eight years.

Irens commented on Joyon’s success: “I would say that if you had to put it in a nutshell traditional seamanship values are what he’s got. That doesn’t always mean buying a new one. It means looking at this one and deciding whether it’s right or not.”

The policy continues to stand him in good stead. IDEC Sport was remoded for solo racing, but Joyon does not have a large support team or shore crew, mainly relying on family. He does not court the media.

Weather routing is allowed for the multihulls in the Rhum, although Joyon is famously self-sufficient. For this race Christian Dumard provided routing and explained after the race: “Francis already has a good idea of what’s going to happen. He does his routing and navigation on board.”

While Dumard and his team monitored wind, and particularly sea state, around the clock during the race, there were some surprises.

“We started hitting 100% polars for the boat straight away, then quickly increased to 105% and [Francis] finished at 110%. We were even above the crewed polars we had for the Jules Verne Trophy. Francis was always above those polars, not even half an hour did he drop slower. He’s foot to the floor the whole time,” Dumard said.

When the routing team realised that Macif, by contrast, was far below its predicted speeds, they split into two groups for the final stages – one following IDEC’S progress and another monitoring conditions at the finish. They were in contact with local fishermen and even a Guadaloupean biker, who reported on conditions on the lee of the island.

In the end however, it largely came down to the skipper’s judgement, Joyon skirting within 20m of the shore on the approach to Vieux-fort, eavesdropping conversations on land, on his way to take the win.