ays before Christmas, French
solo sailor François Gabart
stormed back to Brittany to
annihilate one of the greatest and most
difficult of all sailing records, the non-stop
solo round the world. He sailed his 98ft
trimaran MACIF home to Brittany in 42d
16h 40m, slashing more than six days off
the record set in 2016 by his compatriot
Thomas Coville in Sodebo Ultim.
This was Gabart’s first attempt at the
record and for much of the course he
was, incredibly, faster than the record for
the fully crewed time. It look him less than
six days from Ushant to reach the Equator
and he sailed round Cape Horn after only
29 days, beating every record to date.
In the process, he also set a new solo
24-hour record of 851 miles – a day-and-
night average of 35.4 knots. For context,
the all-time 24-hour distance record
is 907.9 miles, set by the vastlyGabart slashes six days
off solo world record
D
i Photos: Alexis Courcoux
ON THE WIND
8 February 2018