VIDEO: Record crossing of the English Channel

Published on April 8th, 2015

Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche and co-skipper Ryan Breymaier have established a new world speed sailing record across the English Channel from the Royal Yacht Squadron Cowes, Isle of Wight to Dinard, France aboard their 105-foot offshore trimaran “Lending Club 2”.

The team hit speeds of over 38 knots when covering the 140 miles across the English Channel, setting a new time of 5 hours, 15 minutes (subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Record Council), at an average speed of 26.36 knots.

Other crew members included Jan Majer, Stanislas Delbarre, Olivier Laplanche, navigator Boris Herrmann, French racing veterans Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant and Roland Jourdain, and OBR Quin Bisset. Shore based weather routing was provided by Wouter Verbraak.

The previous record of 5 hours, 23 minutes was established by skipper Brian Thompson, navigator Adrienne Cahalan and the crew of “Maiden II,” a 110-foot catamaran, in September 2002 at an average speed of 25.6 knots.