Picking up the Record Setting Pace

Published on November 13th, 2017

(November 13, 2017; Day 10, 21:00 FR) – François Gabart was on record setting pace today, ahead of Thomas Coville’s time, in spite of equipment issues. Gabart noticed a batten problem aboard the trimaran MACIF. To assess the extent of the breakage, he had to lower the sail to gain access to the batten in question and attempt a repair.

Gabart has indeed managed to consolidate the damaged batten by performing a provisional repair made to hold until the Cape of Good Hope. He will then benefit from more lenient conditions thereafter to finalize the work. He is currently sailing with 2 reefs in the mainsail and will stay in this configuration.

The skipper of the 30m MACIF trimaran is 303.03 nm ahead of the record pace after covering 681 nm in the past 24 hours.

Only three sailors to date (Francis Joyon, Ellen MacArthur, Thomas Coville) have ever held the record. After his start on November 4, to beat the record of 49 days, 3 hours, 4 minutes and 28 seconds held by Coville since December 25, 2016, Gabart will need to cross the finishing line (between Créac’h lighthouse, in Ouessant (Ushant), and the Lizard Point lighthouse in Cornwall, England) before 13.09 on December 23 (French time, UTC+1).