François Gabart has set a new singlehanded round the world record of 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds.

Skippering the 30m MACIF trimaran, Gabart beat the previous time by Thomas Coville on December 25 2016 by six days, 10 hours, 23 minutes and 53 seconds.

Gabart’s is the second fastest outright time, crewed and singlehanded combined. Only IDEC Sport (Francis Joyon and crew) succeeded in achieving a better time in the Jules Verne Trophy (40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds).

The MACIF trimaran covered a true distance of 27,859.7 miles, with a true average over this course of 27.2 knots.

Gabart joins an elite group as only three sailors to date had ever held the singlehanded round the world record – Francis Joyon, Ellen MacArthur, Thomas Coville. He also beat the reference times on his way.

The most significant ones were the distance sailed singlehanded in 24 hours (851 miles between November 13 and 14, against 784 miles, which was his own personal best), but also with crew and single-handed combined, on the Ouessant-Cape of Good Hope section (12 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes), the Pacific Ocean crossing (Tasmania to Cape Horn in 7 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes) and Cape Horn-equator (6 days, 22 hours and 15 minutes).

“I never dreamed of a time like this,” admitted Gabart. “On paper, with the weather and with what I am capable of doing with this boat, it was possible to beat the record, but in the best scenarios only by one or two days. It’s quite extraordinary.”

Gabart’s new record has yet to be verified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, which will check the ship’s GPS data before confirming the result.

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