Francis Joyon and IDEC’s program For 2009

Francis Joyon is back in business! Just a few months after his amazing round the world record of just over 57 days, the yachtsman from Locmariaquer in Southern Brittany is working on his giant IDEC trimaran preparing for some new adventures.  Busy in Marseilles and Toulon with commitments with his partner, IDEC, Francis has decided to take a look at the Mediterranean challenges. The historic Mediterranean record between Marseilles and Carthage (Tunisia) is currently in the hands of Bruno Peyron’s maxi multihull and her crew.  While not claiming to be able to equal the average 25 knots or so achieved over the distance by the Orange II maxi catamaran, Joyon would like however to place the bar as high as possible for a single-handed multihull across The Big Blue. In September, IDEC will be heading for Cadiz (Spain), in order to go on stand by for another attempt at the Columbus Route between Cadiz and San Salvador (Bahamas). A leopard never changes his spots!

A trimaran in the best of shape
A well-rested Francis Joyon has clearly been thinking about the future, as he has taken care of the IDEC maxi trimaran over the past few weeks. The big red yacht, which holds the round the world record (57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds since last January) has been the subject of close attention by her skipper, aided by his faithful helper Christophe Houdet, and his own brother Christian, with some additional assistance from local craftsmen.  

While the platform does not appeared to have suffered from her round the world voyage, Francis has been examining some of the key elements on his machine; Two new foresails have been added to the “Cuben Fiber” mainsail and staysail from the circumnavigation, and the mast, which he climbed four times yesterday was the subject of some important strengthening measures, mainly concerning the shroud fixation points.  (You may remember the risk of dismasting, which hovered over the record attempt last winter…).