Jules Verne Trophy - Final hours in the South Atlantic

by IDEC Sport Sailing on 20 Jan 2017 The IDEC Sport Maxi trimaran will soon be leaving the South Atlantic. Francis Joyon and his crew of five should be sailing into the Northern Hemisphere early this evening.

This morning they are progressing at around 400 miles from the Equator keeping up speeds of around twenty knots as they head north. They should set a new record between Ushant and the Equator shaving just under four days off the 38 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes and 48 seconds it took Loïck Peyron and his men on Banque Populaire V in 2012.

Joyon’s men will have taken around the same time in the South Atlantic as the title-holder, who was particularly quick in this stretch five years ago, when they set the record between Cape Horn and the Equator with a time of seven days four hours and twenty-seven minutes. Rather than these official figures, it is the Doldrums that is currently weighing on the minds of the lads on the big red and grey trimaran.

Joyon and his crew have already suffered in this zone before. Conditions could hold them up once again complicating the transition before they get to the steady NE’ly trade winds and the home strait to Ushant.