That strange menage a trois

By Guido Trombetta on 8:54 AM , , , ,


Ok, I have to admit that this image I've prepared maybe is a little bit Hollywoodian but the more I think about this story, the more it seems to me an incredible and riveting plot.
Right know Joyon is back in the Atlantic Ocean and is going to to crash down the McArthur world record by many days. So it's time to have an update.
If you don't know what I'm speaking about, maybe you would like to read our previous posts about Francis Joyon and Thomas Coville distinct world single-handed no-stop globe circumnavigtion record attempts.

Let's go chronologically and have some clarity:

February 2004: Francis Joyon became the fastest world solo yachtsman, setting a time over 20 days faster than the previous record for a circumnavigation of 72 days 22 hours and 54 minutes and 22 seconds of covering more than 28,000 nautical miles (51,900 km) at an average speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) on the 90 foot(27.4m) trimaran IDEC. IDEC, formerly known as Sport Electric, had previously taken 71 days to win the Jules Verne Trophy. Joyon took only an extra day on his own with a boat not designed for single-handed sailing, original (over 10 year old) sails and no weather router.

February 2005
: Ellen MacArthur beat Francis Joyon's existing world record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation. MacArthur in the trimaran B&Q/Castorama sailed 27,354 nautical miles (50,660 km) at an average speed of 15.9 knots. Her time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds beat Joyon's then world record time by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds. This record granted her a world fame never seen for a female sailor.

November 23rd 2007: Francis Joyon set off in IDEC II in an attempt to beat Ellen MacArthur's current world record for a single handed circumnavigation, and therefore putting his name at the top of the list again.

December 17th 2007: Thomas Coville set off in Sodeb'O, while Joyon's attempt is still in action, trying to obtain the same record. The godmather of this attempt is just Ellen MacArthur, the same sailor which record Joyon is going to destroy right now

The actual situation: On December 28th Francis Joyon has rounded Cape Horn and right now he is back in the Atlantic with an advantage of 3400 miles (almost 10 days) on Ellen MacArthur's record.
Thomas Coville has gone through severe problems of lack of wind along the brazilian coasts but right now he has find it again and he also is in advantage in comparison to Ellen MacArthur's record but 4 days behind Francis Joyon.
In the following map you can see the actual position of Coville (red arrow) compared to the virtual positions of MacArthur (yellow arrow) and Joyon (blue arrow) after the same race time (16 days from the start).

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