Team Seacats

Francis Joyon, the French Sailor who had his single-handed round the world record quickly bested by Dame Ellen McArthur, has been underway for a while on a new record attempt in a new monster trimaran built specifically for his solo record setting efforts.  Francis is on fire and not only just set a new single handed 24 hour record of 616.04 miles but is currently about 5 days ahead of Ellen’s astonishing voyage in 2005.  To put that 616.04 miles in perspective, that’s nearly 100 miles further than the Tybee 500 race and he did that distance in a day (roughly twice our average Tybee 500 speeds).

There is little doubt that Joyon is on pace to reset this record to a height that will be difficult for anyone to reach in the near future. His custom 97 foot three-hulled rocket is not only nearly as fast as the fully crewed mega G-class catamarans but it is at the brink of the physical limit of a single human to control without the aid of electro-mechanical devices. Not many people could ever sail this thing alone.  However, as magnificent as Joyon and his tri-maran are, one stray floating container, growler (piece of an iceburg), or a surfacing whale could do irreparable damage to Joyon’s machine.  Watch Joyon’s journey HERE (I hope your french is better than mine).  I’ll try to keep you updated he progresses across the Indian Ocean toward Cape Horn.