Wetass of the Month? Year? Decade?….King Francis Joyon: He’s home, and here are the numbers: 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes. That’s 20 days, 5 hours, 3 minutes faster than the previous solo, non-stop, round-the-world sailing record. The first non-stop solo circumnavigation, in 1968, took 313 days, so the bar has been raised by almost a factor of 5. Yesterday TWC compared Joyon’s feat to breaking the four minute mile. Make that the 3-minute mile. Why? Joyon sailed some 26,000 miles at an average speed a fully-crewed multihull would be proud to post. He made nary a tactical mistake with regard to navigation (and refused outside routing because he is a Westass Supreme and wanted to do it all himself), and he protected his boat. Yes, he was very lucky with the weather, but Joyon took what he was given and delivered one of the greatest sailing voyages IN HISTORY. This recor could easily stand a decade or more. Joyon is a quiet, media-shy guy, so there will be no chest-thumping and trash talk. But this is big, very big and TWC will follow-up with any tales Joyon sees fit to tell. Salud, Francis….



One Man, One Boat, One Lap of the Globe, One Incredible Record……