The 800 mile barrier surpassed!!!

Propelled along by a disturbed system coming across from Canada and heading towards Great Britain, Groupama 3 has benefited from some ideal conditions to break the 24 hour distance record. Franck Cammas and his nine crew are the first to break the symbolic 800 mile limit by covering 841 miles at an average of over 35 knots!

The acceleration in time is incredible! In less than ten years, the gain in speed under sail over 24 hours has increased by over 250 miles, which is an average of over ten knots (17 km/h), a bonus of nearly 30%! Indeed Groupama 3 racked up 841 miles in 24 hours this Saturday morning and their pace is such that Franck Cammas and his nine crew are likely to improve on that still further over the next few hours... It is a record which has been a reference to sailors around the world for a long time: the first sailboats to break the 300 mile barrier in a day were the American clippers (1846), equipped to make the journey to San Francisco from New York or Boston in the quest for Canadian gold. With the construction of the maxi-multihulls for great oceanic racing, the 500 mile barrier was exceeded by the Canadian Mike Birch in 1984. Six years later it was the New Zealand sailor Grant Dalton who racked up over 600 miles, then in 2004 Bruno Peyron pushed the barrier beyond 700 miles...

Find all the latest news from the Groupama trimarans at:www.cammas-groupama.com