{"id":2131,"date":"2018-12-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idecsport.com\/francis-joyon-will-be-heading-for-asia\/"},"modified":"2019-04-16T10:19:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T08:19:30","slug":"francis-joyon-will-be-heading-for-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idecsport.com\/en\/francis-joyon-will-be-heading-for-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Joyon will be heading for Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two solo round the world records (2004 and\u00a02007), three Atlantic records (2005, 2013 and 2017), winning the Jules Verne Trophy (2017), and his recent victory in the 2018 Route du Rhum, Francis Joyon and his loyal partner, the IDEC Group, are dreaming of new challenges with horizons beyond the Atlantic and the round the world course.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Opening new routes, sailing away across the sea, reaching out to people, widening the usual definition of ocean racing, which can be somewhat limiting\u2026 These are passions shared by Francis and Patrice Lafargue, the founder and president of the IDEC Group, who already in the past created new records.\u00a0Towards the Indian Ocean and Mauritius sailing between Port-Louis\u00a0(Lorient) and Port Louis (Mauritius) in 2009, then to Brazil,\u00a0with the Friendship Route between Bordeaux and Rio de Janeiro\u00a0in 2014.<\/p>\n

The giant IDEC Sport and her skipper Francis Joyon have decided to step outside their usual playground and head to Asia, a region of the world where few races have stopovers. This latest record programme called\u00a0IDEC SPORT-ASIA\u00a0TOUR 2019-\u00a02020\u00a0will be aiming to tackle seven major records including five new race courses between India and China, before they have a go on the way back at the legendary Clipper route from Hong-Kong to London.<\/p>\n

Before beginning this Asian programme, the winner of the 2018 Route du Rhum will begin the season (May-June 2019)\u00a0with a promotional tour in various ports around the Mediterranean during which he will attempt the Mediterranean record between Marseille and\u00a0Sidi Bou Sai\u0308d\u00a0(Tunisia).<\/p>\n

6 records, on the silk route, the spice route and the clipper route….<\/strong>
\nMore than six centuries ago, setting sail from Lisbon, the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama\u00a0opened up the route to India (1498),\u00a0after a long voyage down the coast of Africa and rounding the famous Cape of Good Hope that his compatriot, Bartolomeu Dias\u00a0had passed several years before. Vasco da\u00a0Gama\u00a0reached India after 309 days at sea, opening up a route to the major voyages of discovery towards unknown and sought after lands: the East Indies.\u00a0Explorers,\u00a0scientists, geographers, botanists and cartographers would spend centuries investigating this world, which had only just come out of the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n

While today, there are no lands left to discover on the surface of the Earth, there are routes to explore, maritime history to rediscover and new records to be invented. That is what the Francis Joyon\u2019s giant IDEC SPORT trimaran will be attempting next year in the context of the new record programme, the IDEC SPORT-ASIAN\u00a0TOUR\u00a02019-2020.<\/p>\n

THE IDEC SPORT-ASIAN\u00a0TOUR\u00a02019-2020 PROGRAMME\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n