The Roesti Sailing Team on the Banque du Léman Class 40 has just beaten the Tour of the British Isles record. By crossing the finish line on 24th August 2020, the crew of the yacht completed this round in 7 days 6 hours 27 minutes and 25 seconds.
On board a crew of 3 sailors (2 men and 1 woman) accompanied by a media Woman to bring this record to life from the inside. Valentin Gautier, Simon Koster (the 2 Swiss skippers of the yacht) and Justine Mettraux had in their sights the time obtained this summer by Ian Lipinski that Crédit Mutuel. On this occasion, the French skipper took 7 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes and 48 seconds. The record was thus broken by more than 10 hours.
It is interesting to see that this record held by Ian Lipinski had been achieved solo... It is therefore a very honourable time for a single man. For this record the Crédit Mutuel designed by David Raison has, like Banque du Léman designed by Sam Manuard, a scow type bow (a round nose). These new Class 40's show, as already in Mini, that this type of design has the wind in its sails and are capable of holding high speeds for long hours without "pulling" too much on the crew.
"I have the impression that we've spent quite a bit of time in light winds and transitions," says Simon Koster from Zurich. "In the end, we're still about ten hours ahead of schedule. Luckily we had some very fast phases! With the sequence of several weather systems, we really had to fight to the end to make it happen. We were never certain that it would pass "cleanly". Technically, it went well, we just had a small problem with the hooking and the halyard, a couple of little things, but nothing disabling. It's a great reward for breaking the record, our main goal, which we had to work hard for!"
No doubt we'll see these yachts again at the forefront of the next races..
