MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

French team breaks around the world sailing record: 48 days, 7 hours

The spectacular maxi-trimaran

French skipper Franck Cammas and his crew onboard Groupama 3 have broken the around-the-world sailing record. The maxi-trimaran shaved two days eight hours off the mark set by Orange II in 2005 to set a record of 48 days seven hours 44 minutes to lap the globe.

Cammas' nine-strong team were 500 miles behind the pace but flew up the North Atlantic from the equator in six days 10 hours to win the Jules Verne Trophy. The yacht averaged 24.6 knots after leaving Brest, France, on 31 January.

“I think we could do a lot better but I'll let someone else beat our record first as I don't really see the appeal of battling against myself,” said Cammas.

“It was a great relief to cross the finish line. We ended up with a great time, certainly better than we could have expected after crossing the equator with a day's deficit.

”Forty eight days was an objective we set ourselves before the start and this proved to be the case even though we didn't often have conditions that were favourable.

“It was a lot more intense than I'd imagined, but that's what we like and obviously we've had nearly 50 days of extremely strong emotions. We trusted in our boat and in the concept of the trimaran.

JULES VERNE RECORDS: 2010: Groupama 3 - 48 days; 2005: Orange II - 50 days; 2004: Cheyenne - 58 days; 2002: Orange - 64 days; 1997: Sport Elec - 71 days; 1994: ENZA - 74 days; 1993: Commodore Explorer - 79 days

”It was a dream-team with a whole wealth of experiences and talents. Sometimes I had to put my feelings to one side and take onboard the ideas of everyone else. I learnt a vast amount, it was superb. The image which stays with us is the rounding of Cape Horn. We were like kids.”

The crew was Cammas, navigator Stan Honey, watch leaders Fred Le Peutrec and Steve Ravussin, helmsmen/trimmers Loïc Le Mignon, Thomas Coville and Lionel Lemonchois, and three bowmen Bruno Jeanjean, Ronan Le Goff and Jacques Caraës, supported on shore by router Sylvain Mondon.

Groupama 3 sailed 28,523 miles from the start line off Ushant off the west coast of France, leaving the Cape of Good Hope off southern Africa, Cape Leeuwin off Australia and Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, to port.

The single-handed around-the-world record is 57 days 13 hours, set in 2008 by Frenchman Francis Joyon, who broke Dame Ellen MacArthur's former mark of 71 days.

Launched in 2006, “Groupama 3″ was and still is a formidable maxi-trimaran of the latest vintage manned a well trained and capable crew of 10. Before winning the Jules Verne Trophy, ”Groupama 3″ had accumulated a number of both formal and informal victories, such as the greatest distance covered in 24 hours in the North Atlantic, not to mention the least number of days to sail across the Atlantic and to cross the Mediterranean on separate occasions.