Coville’s Record Pace Rounds Cape Horn

(December 8, 2016; Day 31, 22:38 UTC) – Thomas Coville (FRA) and his 31m maxi trimaran Sodebo Ultim’ has made the turn at Cape Horn in his attempt to break the solo round the world record. His latest 24 hour run of 361.4 nm decreases his margin to 1811.75 nm (-54 nm) ahead of the current record of 57d 13h 34m 6s set by Francis Joyon (FRA) on the 29.8m trimaran IDEC in January 2008.

Coville crossed Cape Horn today at 2:20 am (French time), which is 4 days 59 minutes ahead of the time set by Joyon when he set the solo round the world record that Coville is in pursuit of.

Coville also set a new record for crossing the Pacific alone in 08:18:28:30 (subject to approval and ratification by the World Sailing Speed ​​Record Council). Coville crossed the 5429 miles at at an average of 25.8 knots.

To go from the southern tip of Tasmania to Cape Horn, the skipper of Sodebo Ultim’ took only 10 minutes more than Orange II, the catamaran of almost 40 meters of Bruno Peyron which in 2005 had spent 8 days and 18 hours with 14 men aboard. Coville’s time was 39 minutes less than Groupama 3 in 2010 with 10 men on board including Thomas Coville.

Coville will have spent 31 days 11 hours 30 min 8 sec from the November 6 start from Ouessant to double the last of the three great caps of the round the world sailing after the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin in the South of the Australia.

With an average water speed of 25.33 knots, the Sodebo Ultim skipper sets a new solo reference time between Ouessant and Cape Horn. He has traveled 19142 miles since the start. In a straight line, he has 7,000 miles left until Ouessant. To beat Francis Joyon’s record, he must be back in Brest before January 3, 2017 at 4:23:57 am (French time).

Team Sodebo – Facebook – Tracker

Background: Thomas Coville (FRA) and the 31m maxi trimaran SODEBO ULTIM started the attempt to break the solo round the world record from in Brest (France) on November 6. The current record of 57d 13h 34m 6s, which starts and finishes between the island of Ushant and Lizard Point in southern England, was set by Francis Joyon (FRA) on the 29.8m trimaran IDEC in January 2008. To break the record, Coville must finish by January 3 at 04 hours 22 min.

Source: Team Sodebo