Francis Joyon will head to New York this evening in preparation for his 2,925-mile New York-Lizard record attempt aboard the 90ft trimaran IDEC. Joyon hopes to break the current record of 7 days 2 hours 34 minutes 42 seconds set in June 1994 by Laurent Bourgnon on Primagaz.

Joyon is currently in the Caribbean in St Martin stocking up on supplies and if he leaves the island tonight or at the latest Thursday morning, he should arrive in New York by 5 April. The IDEC trimaran will be based at Manhattan Sailing Club in standby mode from 10 April.

Chatting from St Martin Joyon said: “Everything is fully ready. I had a trip yesterday between the south of Guadeloupe and St Martin, and the boat managed 22-24 kts in some fine trade winds. I’m here to finish loading up with supplies and finish off two or three little odd jobs.

“The conditions will be fairly quiet, sailing more or less downwind at the start, and then I’ll be upwind in some stronger winds. It’s not going to be easy sailing, but it should allow me to get there in reasonable time nonetheless

“After having so many difficulties getting everything ready and the boat set up correctly, I’m going to try to avoid damaging anything, so there won’t be any work to do all over again in New York! Most of my work involved the rigging, deck fittings and sails, but not a lot of work needed to be done on the boat itself.”

Looking ahead to the record attempt Joyon is still unsure when he’s likely to set off because there is currently no clear window of opportunity. However, Joyon believes that with the current series of lows passing over New York things could get moving fairly quickly.