Bravo Francis Joyon.

With a
scorching display of boatspeed and human endurance, France’s enigmatic rocket
man Francis Joyon pulverised the solo transatlantic record on 15 June, sailing from New
York to the Lizard to set a new time of 5 days 2 hours.

This record has had only six
holders – twice by Joyon, 57 – and there is a very good reason for this. Few have the wherewithal, experience or courage to try it.

There is a world of differerence between attempting an Atlantic record on the edge of a gale with a full crew and keeping a highly strung giant trimaran at the brink all alone. Not everyone can handle it
physically or mentally, or has the level of seamanship required to dance, as it demands, along the edge of capsize or breakage.

The heartstopping photo above gives
a tiny inkling of just how stressful it must have been for Joyon. It shows his
arrival at the finish line of the record off The Lizard, still racing at full pelt while close to shipping and closing on land.

Joyon got the
go-ahead for this record from his longtime weather adviser, Jean-Yves Bernot,
on 10 June. He left New York and hurtled past Ambrose Light on 11 June to
establish himself in the favorable portion of the weather system, ahead of the
front and where the sea was not too formed.

Heading east,
Joyon’s course diverged around 200 miles south of Thomas Coville’s previous record-setting
route, lengthening the distance sailed from a shortest Great Circle distance
of 2,865 miles to 3,222 miles over
the ground. This southerly route gave him 25-30 knots of wind for almost the
entire distance.

Twice on 13
June he had to gybe, sacrificing miles to add keep away from the
centre of the low and in the right pressure gradient. Apart from those few hours Joyon was
flat-out on starboard tack all the
way.

Jean-Yves
Bernot says that their communication about weather was limited to one email in
the morning, another in the evening and an occasional “little chat”. For every
possible waking moment Joyon was on deck to modulate the boat’s performance.

“At one point I
tried to slow down to rest,” Joyon says, “but I had a guilty conscience so I put
canvas back on.”

Joyon’s average
speed over the course sailed was a nerve-jangling 26.2 knots and his highest
instantaneous speed more than 40 knots. To have succeeded is a testament
to his seamanship and he adds this to three other great solo records including his 57-day solo round the world record and last year’s solo 24-hour run of 666 miles.

Read my profile
of him here.