Yesterday, Thursday 21 April, Tony Bullimore and his Daedalus crew finally overcame light and fickle winds to take second place in the Oryx Quest 2005 race. Arriving back at Doha at 11:20:47 GMT, the Bristol based sailor and his crew completed the 22,000 mile challenge in 75 days, 00hrs, 20mins, 48secs.

Their time was just two hours outside this catamaran’s previous best circumnavigation record, when as ENZA New Zealand, she set a Jules Verne record of 74 days 22 hours back in 1994. Even though the Jules Verne record attempts start and finish off Brest, France, the boat’s old record provided a good bench mark for this crew to aim at.

Tony said today: “The old record set by Robin Knox-Johnston and the late Peter Blake certainly kept us focused, and we would have beaten it by a day or more but for the extremely fickle winds experienced at the start and finish.”

“We are also proud of counting three 500 mile day runs – Our best was 518 miles which is a record for this boat.”

Daedalus and her crew have also laid claim to the leg record on this race from Cape Agulhus to Mauritius, beating the larger Doha 2006 skippered by Brian Thompson. There were other occasions too, particularly during the first two weeks at sea when Daedalus, which was the smallest boat to compete in the Oryx Quest, was keeping pace and at times was ahead of then world circumnavigation record holder Cheyenne.

Tony and his crew plan to return to the UK on Sunday and are already planning a series of other record attempts with Daedalus before building a new catamaran to compete in the next round the world race planned to start from Doha in 2006.

Daedalus

Skipper:Tony Bullimore – British

Navigator/Watch captain:Nick Leggatt – South African

Watch captain:Goncalo de Mello O’Neill – Portugal

Crew:Nick Bubb – British

Ian Munslow – British

Mike Ingles – British

Simon Redding – British

James Dunning – British