Our congratulations go to Francis Joyon, whose time of 57 days 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds has been ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council as a new record for the fastest single-handed, non-stop voyage around the world.
Setting off at 10:05:52 GMT on 23 November 2007 in the 98ft trimaran IDEC, the 51 year old Frenchman crossed the finish line off the mouth of the Rade de Brest in northwest France at 23:39:58 GMT on 19 January to claim the new record.
In the process he has demolished Ellen MacArthur's record of 71 days 14 hours and 18 minutes, set three years ago, by 14 days 44 minutes and 27 seconds. The current non-stop circumnavigation record, fully crewed or otherwise, is held by Bruno Peyron and the crew of Orange II, who set a time of 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds in March 2005 and as a result hold the Jules Verne Trophy.
Joyon’s IDEC, McArthur’s Castorama and Peyron’s Orange II all ran B&G instrument and pilot systems, proving that when it comes to fitting the most responsive, reliable and robust system the professionals choose B&G. IDEC was using one of the new B&G Hercules H3000 systems with autopilot which undoubtedly played a significant role in helping Joyon accomplish his remarkable achievement.
“IDEC has a complete B&G Hercules 3000 Instrument and Autopilot system, both performed very well for 57 days around the world. I have been happy with my B&G equipment throughout this and previous record attempts.” Francis Joyon
We will look closer at the boat, its skipper and the systems required to achieve such a remarkable feat in the weeks to come.
