Jules Verne Trophy - Down in the sixties

by IDEC Sport Sailing on 10 Jan 2017 IDEC Sport will be rounding Cape Horn in a few days from now, so it might seem odd that they are heading so far south. Aboard the red and grey maxi-trimaran, all lights are green for the crew, which is continuing to extend its lead over the round the world record with an advance of 1270 miles this morning.

During the night, Francis Joyon and his crew of five carried out a gybe. On the starboard tack, heading SE to pick up some wind allowing them to sail downwind all the way to the exit from the Southern Ocean, there are more gybes ahead.

“We’ll be staying down at 59° S for some time. We’ll be going even further down depending on how the wind shifts. We’re now aiming for a strip of stronger winds to take us downwind to Cape Horn. We can hope for some wind, but we’re going to have to change tack a lot,” Francis Joyon said yesterday afternoon with IDEC Sport continuing on her way in cold but manageable conditions below an area of high pressure.

So it is not surprising to see them dive into the 60s this morning with a good lead over Banque Populaire V, her virtual rival in the Jules Verne Trophy. In a few hours from now, once they have picked up the SW’ly air stream, they can get a bit further north and sail on a zig-zag course to the Horn at 55°58? S and 1500 miles ahead of them.