Code Amber for Francis Joyon and IDEC Sport
by Agence Mer & Media 17 Oct 2019 07:43 PDT
French skipper Francis Joyon is training on his Maxi Trimaran IDEC Sport with his crew, Christophe Houdet, Bertrand Delesne, Corentin Joyon and Antoine Blouet, prior to their Asian Tour next winter on September 18, , off Belle-Ile en Mer, France © Francois Van Malleghem
Francis Joyon has just moved to code amber, as he can see a favourable weather opportunity in the next 48 hours. He may set off on his attempt at the solo Mauritius Route record between Port Louis (Brittany) and Port Louis (Mauritius) on Saturday. This is the first Act in his new record-breaking campaign in Asia, referred to as the IDEC Sport Asian Tour.
If the weather opportunity is confirmed, the skipper of the IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran may leave his home port of La Trinité sur Mer on Saturday 19th October to make his way to the start line off the Citadel in Port Louis (Morbihan).
An 8800 mile long voyage, the Mauritius Route will take Francis to the island of Mauritius. The skipper of IDEC SPORT will be attempting to smash his own reference time set in 2009 of 26 days, four hours and 13 minutes.
Francis Joyon is not one to hang around...He decided to go on stand-by from 18th October and he may well set sail now on Saturday 19th October to attempt to beat the Mauritius Route record.
Francis's weather advisor and router, who will remain ashore, Christian Dumard tells us more about this favourable weather opportunity. "It is not ideal, but is nevertheless favourable and should allow him to reach the Equator in good downwind conditions. The wind will shift to the West and then NW, which should enable him to make a quick exit from the Bay of Biscay. After that, Francis will benefit from downwind sailing to the Doldrums and should fairly quickly pick up the trade winds. It is an opportunity worth grabbing."
Francis Joyon knows all about this 8800-mile solo record between Port-Louis (Brittany) and Port-Louis (Mauritius). Around ten years ago, he opened up this route setting the first reference time for this course with all its weather hurdles. The skipper of IDEC SPORT will therefore be tackling his own record time.
27,000 miles of sailing ahead of the bows of IDEC Sport
The Mauritius Route, the first Act in the IDEC Sport Asian Tour, a brand new campaign of record attempts covers almost 27,000 nautical miles (almost 50,000 km) or the equivalent of a long round the world voyage. The first Act will be followed by three other records, this time with a crew:
Act 2: Mauritius - Ho Chi Minh (3975 miles),
Act 3: Ho Chi Minh - Shenzen - China (920 miles)
Act 4: Clipper Route between Hong Kong and London (13,000 miles)