Francis Joyon aboard his 30m maxi-trimaran yacht IDEC has just smashed the North Atlantic Record, having reached The Lizard at the southern tip of Cornwall in 5 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes and 10 seconds. It is a time that is 16 hours, 34 minutes and 30 seconds less than the former record, set by Thomas Coville in 2008.
Maxi-trimaran yacht IDEC at full speed © JM Liot / DPPI/ IDEC
Over the final stretch, Francis Joyon came very close to beating his own outright distance record over 24 hours (666.2 miles) and this enabled the Breton skipper to make important gains over the second half of the crossing, in spite of sailing some distance away from the Great Circle Route.
