At the end of their second day of racing, Francis Joyon and his crew on the IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran will be passing to the north of La Palma, the westernmost island in the Canaries. In 48 hours they will have sailed a little over 1200 miles, averaging more than 29 knots.
To keep us such a pace, taking into account the number of gybes that have been required since Ushant, the red and white maxi-trimaran has been keeping up speeds in excess of thirty knots. As Francis told us yesterday morning, the organisation of the watches has gone without hitch and that healthy rivalry between the helmsmen that we saw last year, is back in action, while everyone is aware of the importance of being cautious.
Sailing on a trajectory directly parallel to her virtual rival, the title-holder, Banque Populaire V, IDEC SPORT is 88 miles behind the pace, but could make up some of these losses as they round the Canaries via the west. Joyon and his men are not worrying about this data for the moment, preferring to focus on racing against the elements in a NNE’ly air stream, allowing them to make rapid progress south.
