Thomas Coville Round the World - chasing Joyon’s record
On Tuesday 18 Nov 2008, Thomas Coville said goodbye to friends and family, and chatted cheerfully with the Press, before slinging one small bag onto Sodeb’O and hopping aboard as nonchalantly as though he were doing a weekend club race in dinghies.
On Friday 21Nov he was in the latitudes of the Canaries and had averaged 23 knots over the past 24 hours. Having cleared the shipping-infested waters of the Bay of Biscay, he is now settling down to the real business of sailing fast, in an effort to beat the round-the world record of 57 days currently held by Francis Joyon. Here’s the progression over the 40 years that people have been sailing alone non-stop around the world:
- 1968-69 Robin Knox-Johnston, GB, Suhaili, 313 days
- 1985-86 Dodge Morgan, US, American Promise, 150 days
- 1989-90 Titouan Lamazou, France, Ecureuil D’Aquitane II, 109 days
- 1996-97 Christophe Auguin, France, Sceta Calberson, 105 days
- 2000-01 Michel Desjoyeaux, France, PRB, 93 days
- 2004 Francis Joyon, France, IDEC, 72 days
- 2005 Ellen MacArthur, GB, B&Q, 71 days
- 2008 Francis Joyon, France, IDEC II, 57 days
Coville is currently ahead of Joyon’s distances per day, and reckons to catch the back of the Vendée Globe fleet around the Cape of Good Hope, then the leaders by the time they reach the Pacific. The video below shows that Sodeb’O is a lot drier than an Ocean 60, but her motion beating in a fairly smooth sea looks pretty uncomfortable…
