Thomas Coville has announced his attempt to break his own solo North Atlantic record (New York – Lizard Point), covering the 2,980 miles in less than 5 days 19 hours 29 minutes and 20 seconds.

On Friday 26 June, Thomas Coville and his Maxi-Trimaran Sodeb’O arrived in New York after a ten day delivery trip in crewed configuration. The ‘Sodeboys’ took over the 32 metre Maxi to get her into record configuration. The shore crew have lightened the boat by 30 kg and removed the propeller shaft. At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, routers Christian Dumard and Richard Silvani (Météo France) are on the look-out for the slightest hint of a depression system, which would provide a favourable weather window to beat the record.

“The North Atlantic in less than six days isn’t superhuman. You can even perform the crossing in under five days single-handed with a good weather forecast; for that you have to hook onto a system and not let go,” explains Thomas. “It’s a playing field that I’m very familiar with. It’s also the most amusing and the most impressive record.”

On 15 July last year Thomas Coville became the new Solo Transatlantic Record holder. The skipper covered 2,925 miles at the average speed of 20.97 knots.

“With the boat we have today, we can do better than last year. In 2008, over the last few hours, we were conservative with the weather forecast. We knew we were going to beat it if we didn’t break. We think we’re going to take more risks this year,” added Thomas.

The Maxi-Trimarans Banque Populaire V, skippered by Pascal Bidegory, and Groupama III, skippered by Franck Cammas, are also set to rendez-vous in Gateway Marina to the South of Brooklyn. Similarly, these giants intend to line-up at the Ambrose Light in a bid to tackle the North Atlantic Record this summer, but there will be one fundamental difference: the two skippers will be sailing with 11 sailors on Banque Populaire and 9 on Groupama.