{"id":8680,"date":"2019-11-08T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T10:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idecsport.com\/francis-joyon-has-shattered-the-mauritius-route-record\/"},"modified":"2019-11-08T16:52:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T15:52:51","slug":"francis-joyon-has-shattered-the-mauritius-route-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idecsport.com\/en\/francis-joyon-has-shattered-the-mauritius-route-record\/","title":{"rendered":"FRANCIS JOYON HAS SHATTERED THE MAURITIUS ROUTE RECORD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francis Joyon has just beaten his own record set ten years ago in this stretch of the Route to the Indies referred to as the Mauritius Route and made it all look so easy. 19 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds, or an improvement of 6 days and 10 hours in comparison to ten years ago. The Mauritius Route started from Port Louis in Brittany with part of the round the world route that Francis knows so well having sailed it many times both alone and with a crew. The route then took him up the Indian Ocean with all its difficulties to another Port Louis, this one being the capital of Mauritius. <\/strong><\/p>\n

8950 miles of sailing on paper, which for Francis turned into almost 11,000 miles out on the water, and which he sailed averaging 23.2 knots. This performance pleased the skipper, who was happy to arrive with his IDEC SPORT in perfect condition. He was delighted with the route taken as this will allow him to respect the demanding schedule of the Asian Tour, which will see him sail on other magical routes in the coming months.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A weather opportunity that was far from ideal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor this record, I had two things weighing on my mind,\u201d the winner of the last Route du Rhum and the holder of the Jules Verne trophy said at the finish. \u201cThere was the pressure of getting a good result, as usual when you are racing against the clock. I didn\u2019t have the pressure on me from rivals like I did in the Route du Rhum, but I needed to keep up to schedule for what lies ahead in the Asian Tour, which will take us to Vietnam and then \u00a0China. I didn\u2019t want to mess that up by arriving here behind schedule.\u201d This simple statement made with his usual modesty hides Francis\u2019s insatiable appetite for racing against the clock and dealing with all the elements. At the start on 19th<\/sup> October, this record was far from being a certainty: \u201cOur weather opportunity was far from ideal,\u201d he said. \u201cAs was later confirmed, there was nothing really interesting coming up in the next few days or weeks. We needed to get going in order to stick to the schedule for the Asian sailing programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took IDEC SPORT just over 7 days and 2 hours to get to the Equator. An \u2018average sort of time\u2019, according to the skipper, considering the times he achieved over the past few years sailing solo or with a crew. But it already meant that he was more than a day ahead of the pace he set for the record back in 2009.<\/p>\n

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A long detour to get around the St Helena high<\/strong><\/p>\n

The St Helena high stretched right out to the coast of Brazil and was a huge challenge, but one that Francis was able to deal with. The SE\u2019ly trade winds propelled IDEC SPORT a long way west on a long detour of the calms blocking the path in the middle of the South Atlantic. IDEC SPORT headed towards the south-west a long way from the direct route, and lost some time in so doing. On the eleventh day of racing, he was a few miles behind the pace (up to 27) set by the second IDEC boat, which was able to trace a decent arc across the South Atlantic in 2009.<\/p>\n

A high speed transatlantic crossing<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was when the extraordinary happened in this adventure. With the help of his onshore router, Christian Dumard, Francis noticed that a powerful low pressure system was developing off the coast of Uruguay, which would allow him to get back up with the speeds achieved with a crew during his successful Jules Verne Trophy attempt in 2017. \u201cI set off at the front of the low, which was moving quickly eastwards. Christian and I thought it would quickly drop us off as moving so fast and that I would have to wait for many long hours before a second system appeared, which also looked good.\u201d But as the hours passed, I managed to stick on the northern edge with its strong NW\u2019ly air stream and IDEC SPORT behaved remarkably again, clocking up days in excess of 600 miles, managing to convince the skipper that there was the possibility of sticking with that system all the way. \u201cThis meant a gain of two days by the Cape of Good Hope,\u201d explained Francis, \u201cSo I hung on in there.\u201d It is hard to imagine the effort it took to achieve this during the record. \u201cAs forecast, the low passed him by,\u201d added Christian Dumard admiring this feat. \u201cFrancis found himself in strong and variable winds, in excess of thirty knots and more importantly in heavy seas whipped up by the low. But he managed to stick with it adjusting the angle of the wind to the boat and spending time at the helm to position his giant trimaran on the crest of the enormous waves in the Southern Ocean. \u201cIt is rare that we are able to take advantage of a weather system for so long,\u201d said Francis, who was clearly delighted. \u201cWe managed to do that with the crew of IDEC SPORT in the Jules Verne Trophy.\u201d But it must have taken a huge effort. Francis admits he suffered seeing his boat suffer. \u201cShe jumped from wave to wave, making noises I had never heard before. The night before the Cape of Good Hope was the worst with a thirty foot swell. I was tired, but had to keep going. That was when the record was achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis over the moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, Joyon states that at no point did he think he had gone too far, as happened last year in the Route du Rhum. \u201cI always kept a small amount back. I never pushed the boat all the way. I needed to look after her for what lies ahead and I managed to do that. I\u2019m pleased with the route I took and how the weather systems slotted into place. It was a long journey, but in the terms of the weather, it wasn\u2019t bad. When I finished this morning, I caught sight of land for the first time since I set off. There was incredible light, the turquoise waters and the islands\u2026\u201d Francis was clearly in his element.<\/p>\n