Frenchman sets record of circumnavigation in 49 days? How is this possible?

[Rohan]

France's Thomas Coville sets new round-the-world sailing record of 49 days

French sailor Thomas Coville sets new record for solo sailing circumnavigation | Sports | DW.COM | 25.12.2016


So in a 31' trimaran, Thomas Coville sailed 51,000 km in 49 days. I did the math and that comes out to an average of 43 km per hour, or 23 knots! However he did it, that's incredible.

Someone help me here - how is that possible? I can understand doing a sustained 23 knots in a trimaran, and even faster for awhile, but AVERAGE that as a constant non-stop for 49 days? How did he even catch such strong wind that whole time? Woudn't he have had some days of calm? And even if he did, that means when he was sailing, it must have been much faster than 23 knots.

I have only small experience with trimarans, and none with circumnavigation, but I have a hard time understanding this.

[Training Wheels]

Ummm.....that should be "31 meter trimaran".

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

Ummm.....that should be "31 meter trimaran".

Good catch. Noted. Still leaves me scratching my head however, unless my math on the average speed is off.

[JPA Cate]

It is a very fast, very strong trimaran, and he's a heck of a good skipper!

Check out Steady Hand's thread about the Vendee Globe boats, and see their speeds, too, outside the world of mere mortals, in a way!

Ann

[SV DestinyAscen]

He averaged about 24 knots - I read somewhere that he sailed some 600 miles in a 24 hour period around CV.

In re the winds - these solo circumnavigation nonstop records all follow the same route, head south until they catch the current and trades turn to port and sail as far south as they dare/needed to round the cape horn, turn to port again and sail home. Not the usual trades people are catching on the milkrun or crossing the Atlantic E/W, W/E.

[barnakiel]

Doh the minute misalignments of the imperial vs. metric minds ... ;-)

He did well. Will not be very easy to beat now. Probably the next one will be taken on a foiler.

b.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Doh the minute misalignments of the imperial vs. metric minds ... ;-)

He did well. Will not be very easy to beat now. Probably the next one will be taken on a foiler.

b.

Even so an incredible feat to tame that beast alone and an incredible average speed. Very few can do that.

The average speed was a bit over 24K and it was not only a record but a very meaningful one even if compared with the absolute record that belongs to Peyron on a 40m trimaran with a 13 crew. Coville was only 3 days and a half slower and was 8 days 10 hours faster than the previous solo record (Joyon-2008).

Joyon, the previous solo record holder is on the sea with his trimaran with a small crew trying to beat the absolute sail record. One of the crew is Bernard Stamm that used to make the Vendee Globe.

[StuM]

Just for accuracy sake, perhaps the thread heading should be amended to include the word SOLO. There are a couple of faster circumnavigations on crewed trimarans. The current fastest was about 4 days less than this one.

But that doesn't detract from his record at all - IMNSHO, his is a far greater achievement than doing it a bit faster with a crew of 10-12 people on board to share the effort.

[valhalla360]

While very fast, it could be argued if it is truly a "circumnavigation". A true circumnavigation should pass thru two antipodal points (exact opposite sides of the world).


By heading as far south as possible, they actually cut the length of the journey down. Taken to the extreme, let's assume the north pole melts, would a quick 50' radius around the north pole in less than a minute count as a circumnavigation simply because they passed thru every meridian?

[Adelie]

Guinness has criteria that include minimum distance but not anti-podal points. Let's wait to see what Guinness says.

[SV DestinyAscen]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

While very fast, it could be argued if it is truly a "circumnavigation". A true circumnavigation should pass thru two antipodal points (exact opposite sides of the world).


By heading as far south as possible, they actually cut the length of the journey down. Taken to the extreme, let's assume the north pole melts, would a quick 50' radius around the north pole in less than a minute count as a circumnavigation simply because they passed thru every meridian?

You can do that record but no one would recognize it. These circumnavigation routes are long established and the voyage down the Atlantic and up the Atlantic also adds mileage that more or less approximates the difference between the earth circumference at 35 degrees south and the equator.

[Numawan]

Two of the best videos of this record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AykdqY0a2SQ

Sailing at 30 kts in strong winds down to 59°S at the end of the Indian Ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDowyt-UQ68

Sailing in winds of 40-50 kts in the South Atlantic

[RaymondR]

With modern communications, boat instrumentation and control and computer assisted weather prediction we now have a situation where the crew need only be there for sail changing and adjustment with everything else done from a shore base???

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by SV DestinyAscen

You can do that record but no one would recognize it. These circumnavigation routes are long established and the voyage down the Atlantic and up the Atlantic also adds mileage that more or less approximates the difference between the earth circumference at 35 degrees south and the equator.

It's still shorter and still very artificial, as down in the 40-50's, winds are drastically higher than along practical circumnavigation routes allowing for much higher average speeds.


The run up and down the Atlantic may get it to "approximate" a circumnavigation but that's like saying I drove 25,000 miles last year commuting to work, so I circumnavigated the earth last year.

The ones "recognizing" it have a bias towards new records. If every year or two, they get a lower record they get hype for their business. If there are no records set for a decade or more, it's hard to drum up interest.

[UNCIVILIZED]

To explain the speeds, consider that such boats routinely (as in hourly or more at times) exceed 50kts, peak speeds. With 30kts or more being quite common. Though the trick is actually to prevent the boats from going so fast that they self destruct. Not in making them go fast enough.

So the crews pick & choose their weather, including using the speed of the boats to position themselves in the proper place to catch a ride on a certain (huge) weather cell. Or even to overtake, or outrun one, in order to do this. Along with avoiding everything else out there at the same time. Manned, & otherwise.

From there it's a question of managing the boats, so as to minimize breakages, & avoid flipping. That, & to manage one's own energy, & emotional reserves, while doing all of this.
Since, on an Open 60 if you do everything correctly, I'm told that it takes 15min. to gybe one solo. 15min. of non-stop hard labor, in a precisely coreographed set of evolutions. Which, if you goof, bad things would likely ensue.

If you're still curious, do some studying on all of the training that skippers & crews go through. This on top of their already seriously deep skill resumes. Things like cross training on engine maint., boat building, sleep management (& testing/optimizing of same), sail maint., rigging... And they literally have support crews the size of small (high tech) towns. So...