Thomas Coville retires
06.01.2008
La crash box tribord a rempli son rôle
RETIREMENT OF THOMAS COVILLE FROM HIS SINGLE-HANDED ROUND THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT IN A MULTIHULL
Precisely 5 minutes after beating the 24 hour distance record and whilst sailing at the latitude of the Kerguelen Islands, Thomas went up on deck to reduce the sail area and discovered that he had lost the crash box from his starboard float. Even though it's too early to say whether it's the result of impact or not Thomas, who saw two icebergs measuring several hundred metres long yesterday, observed that there were some growlers - pieces of partially submerged ice, around the boat. Acting as a kind of bumper, the crash box is there to avoid breaking the whole boat in the event of impact with something and also ensures the float’s watertightness.
The trimaran is currently rerouting to Cape Town (South Africa) some 1,300 miles away.
We can imagine the skipper’s disappointment after just beating - at 0H45 UTC – the single handed 24 hour record. Thomas covered the 619.3 miles at an average of 25.8 knots. In so doing he beats the record held by Francis Joyon (616.03) by three miles. The record is currently awaiting approval from the WSSRC.
It should be noted that Thomas broke the record during his 20th day at sea, just like Francis Joyon, whilst in the same zone of the Indian Ocean, with a fairly similar weather pattern, ahead of a depression.
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par AUFFREDOU : Allez, on y croit, Thomas, vous etes un grand monsieur. Tout n'est pas fini. Et puis quand bien meme, le record ne serait pas battu, ce serait une performance exeptionnelle de toute facon. Peu de gens sur terre sont capable de faire ce que vous avez etes entrain de faire. Peu de gens ont autant de motivation et de courage que vous. Vous etes un exemple. Je suis connecté en permanance et c'est incroyable comme je suis accroc de votre trajectoire. C'est presque pire que virtual regatta que j'avais fait à l'époque de groupama et de la transat jaques vabre. Merci à vous monsieur Thomas Coville, merci à vous, marins de toutes envergure. FP AUFFREDOU
