19 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds were enough for the skipper of Ultim Idec Sport to reach Port-Louis to Mauritius from Port-Louis in Morbihan. Francis Joyon thus improved his own record by 6 days and 10 hours on these 11?000 miles on the bottom, swallowed at an average speed of 23.2 knots
"I experienced this record under double pressure." tells us in the heat of the moment the winner of the last Route du Rhum and holder of the Jules Verne Trophy. "The pressure of the result, as usual when fighting against the clock. I wasn't under pressure from the opponents as I was on the Route du Rhum, but I had to stay within the timeframe set by our upcoming appointments in the Asian Tour that will lead us to Vietnam and then China. I didn't want to compromise everything by arriving here late."
And from the outset, on October 19, it was far from being won: "Our weather window was far from ideal." he says," but as we saw later, nothing very interesting was coming up for days or even weeks. We had to leave in order to remain able to respect our Asian program."
Fred Cusin / ALEA / IDEC SPORT
Francis Joyon reached Ecuador in 7 days, an average time compared to the times established in recent seasons both solo and crewed. Despite everything, he was already a day ahead of his record.
The next step was the passage of the St. Helena High under the Brazilian coast. The SE'ly tradewinds pushed Idec Sport far to the west to bypass the windless zones in the heart of the South Atlantic. As a result, on the 11th day of the race, the skipper was a handful of miles (up to 27) behind his previous record
With the help of his router Christian Dumard, Francis Joyon saw the development of a beautiful depression that could give him the opportunity to get the throttle going. "I went to the front of the depression, which was moving very quickly eastward. With Christian, we thought she would leave us on the road very quickly, and that I would have to wait long hours before a second system, very interesting too, arrived."
Jonathan Beukman / IDEC SPORT
However, as the hours went by, Idec Sport was well positioned on the northern edge of the powerful NW'ly flows, with days more than 600 miles away.
"There was a two-day gain at Good Hope at clé?!" explains Francis, "So I went to accroché?!"
"The depression as expected passed over him" continues, admiringly, Christian Dumard. "Francis found himself with strong, irregular winds of over 30 knots and above all a huge sea raised by the depression. But he clung on, adjusting the angle to the wind of the boat, steering a lot to place his giant trimaran on the crest of the huge waves of the Great South."
"It's rare to be able to enjoy a weather system for such a long time," says Francis, "We did it with the IDEC SPORT crew on the Jules Verne Trophy."
Francis admits to having suffered seeing his boat suffer. " He was jumping from wave to wave, and making noises I'd never heard him before proférer?! The night just before good, Espérance was the worst, with 10-metre troughs. I was tired, but the effort had to be prolonged. That's where this record was set..."
However, he has never put himself in the red as he was able to do in the 2018 Route du Rhum. "I've always left a small margin. I never pushed my settings to the limit. I had to spare the boat for the rest of the program. It has been done. I am happy with this beautiful trajectory and this beautiful sequence of weather systems. The road was long, but meteorologically, it was not bad. I arrived this morning and discovered my first lands since the beginning of the day. Incredible light, turquoise water, islands..."
