What is it like winning a race and establishing a new record in a time that’s slower than when you won it before? That’s what Loick Peyron did on Saturday when he won the Artemis Transat in Gitana 80 and he admits that it’s a very different experience to when he won the race 12 years ago in the ORMA 60 trimaran Fuijifilm in 10d 10h – a full two days slower.

In any other sport, doing anything slower would be utterly perverse and so it in sailing, if truth be told, except for the inconvenient facts of supply and demand. The demand for ORMA 60 trimarans has dwindled, whereas IMOCA 60 multihulls have flourished So there has been an influx of former multi sailors, Loick Peyron among them, and you sense that Peyron is happy that he can change course and still find that he is still absolutely at the top of his career.

Read more on Elaine Bunting’s blog.