In full agreement with his crew and Marcel van Triest, his router, Francis Joyon decided this morning to stop his attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy round the world record. He has turned back and is heading for Brest to wait for a more favourable weather opportunity.
The Doldrums were particularly active and moving with the IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran preventing Francis Joyon and his men from making it to the South Atlantic low and achieving a decent time to the Cape of Good Hope, and in good stead to beat the record held by Banque Populaire V.
IDEC SPORT is heading back to Brest in Brittany, which Francis Joyon hopes to reach next weekend. He will then begin another stand-by phase for another attempt. “With extremely violent squalls and long periods of calm, I thought about it for a long time before asking Marcel van Triest about whether it was worth continuing our attempt,” explained Francis. “It seems that this unforeseen delay in getting to the Equator, means we won’t be able to hop onto the lows forming off Cape Frio in Brazil. If we continued on our route, we would probably reach the Cape of Good Hope too far behind the record.”
“We’re not giving up. The idea of turning back is always part of this challenge and we had talked about it before the start in Brest last weekend. We shall be heading back into the squalls in the Doldrums and hope to reach Brest next Sunday to go on stand by again.”
