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Channel monohull record broken

Conditions for Van den Heede's crossing were not 'brilliant'

DINARD, France -- French solo sailor Jean-Luc van den Heede has set a new cross Channel monohull sailing record from Cowes to Dinard.

Sailing with a crew of four on the 25,7m (85ft) aluminium Gilles Vaton designed Adrien, van den Heede took more than three hours off the monohull record set by Britain's Lawrie Smith on the Whitbread 60 Silk Cut in 1999, with a new crossing time of 11 hours 44 minutes and 12 seconds.

The Vendee Globe veteran skipper, who has completed four solo circumnavigations, said: "Conditions weren't that brilliant. We never had more than 20 knots of wind."

"What's more, it came in from the west for almost the whole time. That meant that we were almost always sailing wind abeam or on a close reach, with just the main and genoa. Adrien sails well on this point of sail, but she would have been a lot faster under spinnaker in a 30-knot north-westerly wind."

The Channel Record Trophy covers the historic route linking Cowes on the Isle of Wight to Dinard, France. The distance is 138 nautical miles making it a true sprint across the Channel. It is open to both multihulls and monohulls.

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The crossing formed part of van den Heede's training programme for his attempt on the solo east-west circumnavigation record of 151 days and 19 hours currently set by Frenchman Philippe Monnet in the Open 60 Uunet in 1999.

The non-stop east-west circumnavigation is recognised as the 'Everest' of sailing because it is against the prevailing winds and currents. Chay Blyth first set the record in 1970 with a time of 270 days. This was cut by his protege Mike Golding in 1994 with a new time of 161 days in one of the 20m (67ft) BT Challenge steel yachts.

The east-west record will be the third attempt for the 56-year-old former mathematics professor van den Heede.

He abandoned his first attempt in 1999 after the hull of his 18m (60ft) two-masted yawl Aligmous started to delaminate after hitting a submerged object half way between New Zealand and Cape Horn.

He then built a new boat, Adrien, optimised specifically for upwind sailing for the record with a relatively short masthead rig and 3.5 tonnes of transferable water ballast.

He set off in 12 October 2001, but was forced to retire after 9,000 miles of sailing, soon after rounding Cape Horn, when he noticed that his keel was working loose from the hull.

Van den Heede said the Channel Record was a good test for Adrien which will set out 5 October from Les Sables d'Olonne for the start of his third round the world record attempt.

Channel Record Trophy

Monohull: Adrien (25.7m/85ft) Jean-Luc van den Heede (France)

Time: 11h 44' 12"

Improvement on Silk Cut's time: 3h 04' 15"

Average speed: 11.75 knots

August 2002

Multihull: PlayStation catamaran (38m/125ft) Steve Fossett (USA)

Time: 6h 21' 54"

Average speed: 21.68 knots

December 2001