Joyon Halfway, Ellen On Ready To Be On Her Way: Solo sailor Francis Joyon is about halfway across the Atlantic in his attempt to break PlayStation’s outright east/west Transatlantic record. You can find Joyon’s positions here. Joyon has been speeding along nicely, keeping pace (sort of) with PlayStation, but the second half of the voyage will be tricky. Joyon is north of PlayStation’s route, and a low pressure cell is about to cross his path, threatening light winds in the center or headwinds if he gets caught south of it. On the other hand, the backside of the system will bring strong north/northwesterlies, which could give Joyon a strong finishing kick on a route that normally sees light winds near the finish (PlayStation had light winds for the final hundred miles). We’ll see what happens, and right now Joyon is projecting an arrival outside PlayStation’s record time but inside Club Med’s previous record time of 10 days 9 hours. Which would still be very impressive…

While Joyon is again out demolishing solo record times, and beating many a crewed time, Ellen MacArthur is now officially on standby to chase Joyon’s superhuman solo round-the-world record of 72 days 22 hours. MacArthur’s 75-foot trimaran B&Q is in Falmouth, waiting for a favorable weather window to set out from the English Channel. The best system for a slingshot across the Bay Of Biscay, and down into the Trade Winds on northerly winds, is a well-established high pressure system out in the Atlantic, and right now there’s nothing obvious in the offing. But it will come.

Here’s a little background on this record from MacArthur’s site, which is the biggest, baddest solo sailing mark out there:

WHY IS THIS RECORD SO EXCEPTIONAL:

1800+ people have reached the summit of Everest…

450+ people have been in space…

12 astronauts have stepped on the moon…

5 solo sailors have attempted to race around the globe NON-STOP on MULTIHULLS (the fastest and most extreme boats to traverse the oceans)…

Only 1 succeeded to go the distance non-stop…

PREVIOUS MULTIHULL SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS:

Previous attempts to race solo non-stop around the world on a multihull:

1968-69 Nigel Tetley on board Victress (Golden Globe competitor, sank 1100 miles from the finish line off the English coast but Tetley had already crossed his outbound track thereby technically completed the first solo circumnavigation in a multihull)

1973-74 Alain Colas on board Manureva finished in 169 days (stopped to make repairs)

1986-87 Philippe Monnet on board Kriter finished in 129 days (stopped to make repairs)

1988-89 Olivier de Kersauson on board Un Autre Regard finished in 125 days (stopped to make repairs)

2003-04 Francis Joyon on board IDEC finished in 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 22 seconds (non-stop)

If MacArthur makes it non-stop she’ll be guaranteed at least one record: fastest woman solo and non-stop. But anyone who knows MacArthur knows she doesn’t give a damn about setting a woman’s record. There’s only one thing she cares about: beating every other sailor–man or woman–out there…



MacArthur Set To Chase: “Francis is really making my life difficult with his insistence on rewriting the record books. But damn he’s good…”

(Photo: Benoit Stichelbaut/DPPI)