French threat to round the world record

Sailing

Stuart Alexander
Sunday 27 April 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The record for sailing round the world was under threat yesterday as the French skipper Olivier de Kersauson took 24 hours to travel 397 miles in the 90ft trimaran Sport-Elec.

The target is the 74 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds set by Sir Peter Blake and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in 1994 in the 92ft catamaran Enza.

With 1,800 miles still to run, De Kersauson was around 36 hours ahead of schedule. However, the weather experts advising De Kersauson said yesterday they were having to "thread him through and around" a couple of low pressure systems to put him on top of the Atlantic Ridge.

The former world 505 champion, Jeremy Robinson, flies out to Annapolis, Maryland, this week to take over as helmsman on the British Admiral's Cup team big boat, Graham Walker's Indulgence. He and the tactician Glyn Charles will be the third combination tried so far.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in