bigger 130ft Banque Populaire V with a
crew of 11.
Gabart’s record-breaking route
necessitated an extreme southerly route
across the South Pacific Ocean. It was
a track that, with their safety gates, no
organised round the world race now
takes. Gabart dived down to 60°S and
had one near brush with an iceberg as
he was being “battered by waves” and
driven along at 35 knots.
“I was frightened when I saw [it],” he
admitted. “That took me by surprise.
Even though you deal with it, in the
hours that follow you say to yourself:
‘What do you do when it gets dark four
hours later?’ You react passively and
fatalistically. You can’t do anything.
What’s more, you’re in the Screaming
Sixties, an area of the world where
there’s nothing if you hit something. If a
boat was to come, it would arrive three
weeks later.
“So, I was glad to get away and at
the same time, after the event, now that
I’m here, I’m delighted I saw an iceberg.
It’s amazing.”
The sheer speed of the trimaran
punching into seas in the south caused
some damage, the most troublesome
being to the furler for his J2 headsail,
which had to be cut to repair. “When you
enter a wave at 40 to 45 knots, it causes
quite a bit of damage at the bow,” Gabart
explained, as he struggled into the South
Atlantic to take the furler apart and fix it.
The violent motion of the boat took
its toll on the skipper too, though he
remained stoical saying only that he had
“a few small injuries, particularly to one
of my fingers.”
After rounding Cape Horn in earlyDecember, Gabart’s shore team said he
had become increasingly exhausted, yet
he had another two weeks of driving the
huge trimaran to its maximum before
crossing the finish line between The
Lizard and Ushant.
By the time he did so, he was the
equivalent of 2,700 miles ahead of
Coville’s previous record in the maxi
trimaran Sodebo Ultim, which had taken
his French compatriot five attempts and
eight years to break.
“I’m aching all over and it’s been like
that for weeks; weeks since a proper
sleep – I can hardly go on,” Gabart
admitted at a press conference after his
arrival. “It was hard and I was on the very
edge of things the whole time. I’m sore all
over. It hurts when I raise my arms, but
I’m holding out because of the adrenalin
and the euphoria.”Historic achievement
In France, François Gabart’s record has
rightly been acclaimed as a historic
achievement. Not only did he break it by
a margin of almost a week, but he did
so at his first attempt. That attests toRECORD TIME
42d 16h
40m
MAXIMUM SPEED
47 knots
DISTANCE SAILED
27,
miles
Welcoming
party: MACIF
arrives in Brest
after 42 days
circumnavigating
the globeSTART TIME
- 2017
1015
FINISH TIME
- 2017
0245
Photos: Jean-Marie Liot / ALeA / MacifON THE WIND
10 February 2018