{"id":162238,"date":"2026-03-04T06:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=162238"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:39:54","slug":"the-slow-slow-road-to-becoming-flat-out-fastest-matt-sheahan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/homepage\/the-slow-slow-road-to-becoming-flat-out-fastest-matt-sheahan-162238","title":{"rendered":"The slow, slow road to becoming flat-out fastest – Matt Sheahan"},"content":"Thomas Coville\u2019s Sodebo<\/a> team crossed the virtual finish line between Ushant and Lizard Point this morning at 0746 (French time), after 40 days, 10 hours, and 45 minutes at sea, setting a new time for the fastest ever boat to sail non-stop around the world and claim the Jules Verne Trophy<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe Sodebo Ultim 3<\/em> \u2013 crewed by Thomas Coville with Benjamin Schwartz, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, L\u00e9onard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle \u2013 completed the circumnavigation 12 hours and 44 minutes faster than Francis Joyon\u2019s long-standing previous record, which was held by IDEC Sport<\/em> since 2017<\/a>.\r\n

Sodebo's record speed<\/h2>\r\nThe team sailed 28,315 miles non-stop at a jaw-dropping average speed of 27.17 knots.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161824\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Thomas Coville and crew, approach the Jules Verne finish aboard the Trimaran Sodebo Ultim 3 - recent damage to the starboard rudder casing is visible caused during Storm Ingrid. Photo: Lloyd Images \/ Sodebo[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter setting off from Ushant, they reached the Equator in just 4 days and 4 hours, and the Cape of Good Hope in just under 11 days.\r\n\r\nSodebo rounded Cape Leuuwin, having sailed half way around the planet, in 17 days and 1 hour \u2013 at that point having maintained an average speed of 32.1 knots since the start.\r\n\r\nThey crossed the Pacific in just 7 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes \u2014 taking three hours off the previous fastest time set by Fran\u00e7ois Gabart (subject to WSSRC validation). And on the return leg, they were 20 hours and 49 minutes ahead of Idec Sport at the Equator crossing.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161823\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Thomas Coville and his crew, Benjamin Schwartz, L\u00e9onard Legrand, Frederic Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Guillaume Pirouelle, Nicolas Troussel, aboard Sodebo Ultim 3 off Ouessant, celebrate after winning the Jules Verne Trophy on January 25, 2026. Photo: Lloyd Images \/ Sodebo[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBy that point they had already sailed nearly 2,000 miles further than IDEC Sport, and had maintained a blistering average pace of 29.9 knots since the start.\r\n\r\nThey team were still on course to break the symbolic 40-day barrier until the final miles, when Storm Ingrid forced them to take a westerly course and slow the trimaran in a potentially boat-breaking sea state.\r\n\r\nApart from the loss of a rudder casing<\/a>, they got through Storm Ingrid relatively unscathed and were able to get back up to 30-knot speeds for the final approach to Ushant, crossing at 0746 this morning.\r\n

Thomas Coville record breaker<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161811\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Skipper Thomas Coville. Photo: Team Sodebo[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThomas Coville has dedicated his life to the pursuit of incredible round the world records.\r\n\r\nA truly extraordinary human being, Coville is not only remarkably skilful, brave and resilient, he is also an erudite philosopher who brings an incredible energy and curiosity to everything he does.\r\n\r\nHe has twice set a Jules Verne record as crew \u2014 with Olivier de Kersauson in 1997 on Sport Elec<\/em> (71 days), and the second in 2010 with Franck Cammas on Groupama 3<\/em> (48 days).\r\n\r\nIn 2016 he set a non-stop solo circumnavigation record<\/a> after a decade of attempts.\r\n\r\nIn 2019 he launched his new Sodebo Ultim 3<\/em>, with the goal of becoming the fastest boat ever to sail around the world \u2014 see more about the remarkable boat<\/a> and watch our exclusive video tour<\/a>.\r\n\r\nOver the past six years the Sodebo team have made three attempts at the Jules Verne<\/a>, sometimes in a \u2018race\u2019 with other Ultims, sometimes alone. Each was thwarted by damage as the Ultims<\/a> - fully foiling, at the very bleeding edge of offshore technology \u2014 suffered breakdowns and damage. This is also the first time an Ultim has sailed non-stop around the world.\r\n\r\nSo remarkable was IDEC Sport\u2019s time, that in total there have been 13 attempts at the record since, but all others had failed.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161785\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" The Ultim Sodebo filmed by drone by the team in the Southern Ocean shows the extreme speed. Photo: Leonard LeGrand\/ Team Sodebo[\/caption]\r\n\r\nDespite starting in an optimum weather window, the Sodebo crew did not have an easy circumnavigation: the position of the St Helena High meant they had to add precious extra miles to their route in the South Atlantic, avoid rogue ice in the Southern Ocean, and withstand 40-50 knot winds as an Atlantic depression<\/a>, known as \u2018Storm Ingrid\u2019 stood between them and the finish line.\r\n\r\nHowever, Sodebo\u2019s outright speed also saw the crew set two passage records (Ushant-Equator and the Pacific Ocean) and establish benchmark times at each \u2018Great Cape\u2019 (Good Hope, Leeuwin, and Horn).\r\n\r\nCoville signed off his final onboard update yesterday , as Sodebo hurtled through the remnants of Storm Ingrid \u2014 with the record not yet secure, saying \"Know that on the other side of Biscay there are seven guys out here having a blast and dreaming of sharing it with you!\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161821\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Creac\u2019h lighthouse, the Jules Verne record\u2019s finish line, is passed by Sodebo on January 25, 2026. Photo: Lloyd Images \/ Sodebo[\/caption]\r\n

Long-standing support<\/h2>\r\nCoville has been supported by Sodebo, a family-run food company that has a huge presence on the French offshore racing world, since 1998. Co-president Patricia Brochard was one of thousands who turned out to welcome Coville and crew back into Brest:\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s an intense joy, a mix of relief and excitement,\" she said as they finished.\r\n\r\n\"It\u2019s the culmination of the wonderful story we\u2019ve been writing together for 27 years with Thomas (Coville). What we love is seeing men and women united around a common project, with unwavering determination.\u201d\r\n\r\nWe'll report further with the sailors' reactions once we have them.\r\n\r\n ","excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Francis Joyon and his crew aboard IDEC Sport set a ground-breaking record for a non-stop lap of the planet in 2017 it was clear their trip had been an exceptional one. They hadn\u2019t just beaten the record set five years earlier, but smashed it \u2013 taking five days off the previous best. IDEC Sport\u2019s record stood for nine years. This January, Thomas Coville and his crew aboard Sodebo nudged the bar up once more, taking 12 hours off Joyon\u2019s time. And while Sodebo\u2019s performance was impressive, it\u2019s interesting to reflect that, since Joyon\u2019s record, design and technology have taken a big hike and yet the winning margin was relatively small. Today\u2019s Ultim tris are massively more powerful and sophisticated than their predecessors, thanks largely to the fact they can fly. And yet Sodebo only managed to take hours rather than days off the record. To be fair, they had to slow down towards the finish to avoid Storm Ingrid. If they hadn\u2019t it\u2019s likely they could have taken more than a day off the record. They\u2019d also travelled much further to search out the best conditions. In all, Sodebo sailed around 2,000 miles more than IDEC Sport. Still, there\u2019s no question the world of high-performance sailing is going through a revolution as foils start to show what they can do offshore and in waves. The giant 34m Baltic 111 Raven, with its huge canting foils, set a very impressive recent new course record in the RORC Transatlantic Race, crossing in just 6 days, 22 hours. Not only had they set a new time, but they took the record from a boat that has long been widely regarded as the fastest supermaxi in the world: Comanche. According to some of Raven\u2019s crew, who\u2019d also sailed aboard Comanche, the most impressive thing was to be sitting at record-breaking pace at just 6\u00b0 of heel. Aboard Comanche it would have been 23\u00b0. For me, this is a big pointer to what might be in store for racing and perhaps cruising: fast and flat. Article continues below… But what also came across was that it had taken two years to get to the point that Raven\u2019s crew were happy to enter the race. Two years to get to grips with the systems, the loads and the handling to understand and exploit the potential of this radical machine. Team Gitana and skipper Charles Caudrelier have spent the last two years working to create their latest Ultim, Gitana 18, which launched as this column went to press. It\u2019s a beast of a machine and looks just like the kind of offshore weapon that will rip through the record books. But according to Caudrelier it will take four years before the team can fully exploit the potential of the new trimaran and make it reliable enough to attempt a new world record. The main reason is that while we know far more about how to make big gains in performance, the modern generation of designs have …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":463,"featured_media":150269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[969],"tags":[1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162238"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162241,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162238\/revisions\/162241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162238"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}