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| 105' Trimaran Around the World in 48 Days French Crew With a US Navigator Californian |
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 | | Photo by Groupama | | Groupama maintained high speeds like this from the equator all the way home |
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By Peter Marsh
Even Jules Verne couldn't have imagined it: the round-the-world sailing record has now passed below the 50-day mark--and only 17 years after the mythical 80-day mark was achieved. Fittingly, it was another French yacht, this time the 105' trimaran Groupama, that lowered the time to 48 days seven hours, slicing two days eight hours off the mark set by the 120' catamaran Orange II in 2005.
It is a fair reward for Franck Cammas and his nine-strong team, who have been after this mark since the boat was launched in 2007. They have overcome two devastating failures in their quest: they broke a float and rolled over off New Zealand late in 2008, towed the boat back to port, shipped it home, and rebuilt it. This winter, they damaged a float again, retired to Capetown, South Africa, sailed the boat home, reinforced it, and set off again at the very last possible moment.
They were 600 miles ahead of the record in the South Atlantic, emerged from Cape Horn with just a 150 mile lead, then lost it tacking their way up the Brazilian coast. They were 500 miles behind the pace at the equator, but flew up the North Atlantic in six days 10 hours to win the Jules Verne Trophy. "Forty eight days was an objective we set ourselves before the start and this proved to be the case even though we didn't often have conditions that were favorable," said Cammas.
Groupama 3 left Brest at the tip of Brittany on January 31 and averaged 24.6 knots over 28,523 nautical miles, seven thousand more than the shortest course. This reflected the many times they had to sail around calms and storms.
"I think we could do a lot better, but I'll let someone else beat our record first,"Cammas reflected. "The image which stays with us is the rounding of Cape Horn. We were like kids. So it was a great relief to cross the finish line. We ended up with a great time, certainly better than we could have expected after crossing the equator with a day's deficit.
"It was a dream-team with a whole wealth of experiences and talents. Sometimes I had to put my feelings to one side and take onboard the ideas of everyone else. I learned a vast amount, it was superb. "
Navigator Stan Honey
Notable among the crew was the one non-French member, navigator Stan Honey--a Californian sailor and high-tech entrepreneur from Palo Alto. Cammas, who speaks fluent English, considers him one of the top navigators in the world and invited him to join the all-French effort.
At 52 years of age, Honey was the oldest man on the boat. He has a name that is easy to remember, and it has appeared regularly on the crew list of big, fast and successful racing yachts. His first triumph in the Transpac was on Drifter in '79. Just last summer, he was navigating in his 16th Transpac on the 100' Alfa Romeo when it demolished the course record. in 5 days, 14 hours.
His first big multihull was Steve Fossett's 125' Cheyenne, which lowered the trans-Atlantic record to four days in 2002. He didn't go full-time in yacht racing until 2004, with the invitation to join ABN AMRO, which dominated the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race.
Honey usually stays in the background--a web search turned up very little sailing information on him-and he apparently doesn't even have his own web site. His own boat is a Cal 40-- the fiberglass classic designed in 1963--on which he set a long-standing record for racing solo to Hawaii.
Maybe that's because he has had more than his share of fame in the high-tech business world, where he just happens to be known as "the father of consumer on-screen navigation." His inventions include the basic automotive navigation system used around the world and the technology that displays the first-down line and tracks baseballs on your TV!
This trimaran is very sophisticated he says, and is amazingly responsive to small changes of sail trim. It makes Fossett's Cheyenne look quite primitive in comparison. Asked about the difference between fleet racing and record breaking, he points out that for the navigator, being on standby is almost as hard as being under way because he is constantly watching the weather situation.
On a record attempt, you are really racing against "the past and the future," he says wryly. "In a fleet, at least you know when the start is and can get a good idea of how well you are doing against your competitors."
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