Neither of the monster-sized trimarans that recently challenged for the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation of the world succeeded in beating the record time of 45 days 13 hours and 42 minutes set by Loïck Peyron’s Maxi Banque Populaire V in 2012.
Nevertheless, the ocean match race between the two crews – Dona Bertarelli & Yann Guichard’s Spindrift Racing and Francis Joyon’s IDEC Sport – made for compelling watching for yacht racing fans.
Conveniently, the pair set off within two hours of each other, crossing the official start line between the French Creach Lighthouse on the Island of Ushant and the Lizard Lighthouse at the very south west tip of the UK in the early hours of November 22.
The 40-metre Spindrift 2 had been dramatically modified since it set the record as Banque Populaire V lighter by 2,5 tons and sporting a new 42-metre 25 per cent lighter mast. Her rival IDEC (also a JVT winner as Franck Cammas’ Groupama 3 in 2010) was a minnow by comparison, ‘just’ 31.5-metres long with a 33.5-metre mast. Remarkably, Joyon’s crew comprised just six men compared to Spindrift’s 13 men and one woman.
The first week at sea went well for the challengers as they tore through the North Atlantic ahead of the record pace with Spindrift setting a new benchmark time from Ushant to the Equator of four days, 13 hours and 42 minutes – more than 17 hours ahead of Peyron’s 2012 pace.
However, things got a little stickier around the light winds of the Saint Helena high pressure system and Spindrift was fewer than 15 minutes ahead of the record as she rounded Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of South Africa.
After experiencing frustratingly mixed conditions in the Southern Ocean, the big black trimaran was only two hours ahead of the Banque Populaire ghost track as she passed Tasmania. Remarkably, after 20 days of ocean racing IDEC’s six-man crew were within sight of the Spindrift team as the two trimarans headed for Cape Horn.
At the Horn Spindrift was just 18 hours and 11 minutes ahead of the record time as she turned north and entered the South Atlantic for the final stint of the journey. This section was where the record began to slip away from them and the final blow was dealt in the North Atlantic by an ever expanding Azores High Pressure System which necessitated a 1,000-mile diversion to the north-west to avoid its clutches.
On their forty-seventh day at sea – two days outside the record – and after 29,000 miles of racing, fewer than four hours separated Spindrift from IDEC when the two boats arrived back at Ushant.
Despite failing to break the record both crews were justifiably pleased with their blistering lap of the globe.
“There are always tough times in a 45-day race, but everything went well with the team. There was a great atmosphere from start to finish,” said a smiling Guichard.
“No regrets and no frustration,” said Bertarelli, now officially the world’s fastest female circumnavigator. “We had a good race. We have nothing to feel ashamed of, we gave everything we had. It’s the life of chasing records and you have to accept that. We’ll be back.”
Joyon too said this would not be the end of his Jules Verne Trophy adventure. Although often outgunned by his rivals’ bigger boat and crew, he was always on the pace and very much in contention to the end.
“We were so close to succeeding that we can see it can be done,” he commented wistfully. “Will we do it again? If we could set off again as a crew on this boat, we’d willingly do it. We are all very positive about what happened.”
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