French sailor Thomas Coville sailed into France today after 8 weeks on the ocean. He set off January 9th to beat Francis Joyon’s solo round the world record of 57 days. Thomas’ maxi trimaran “Sodeb’O” was faster, but the weather, ice and a random whale were against him, so he ultimately sailed many more miles. When he finished today he was two days behind the record.
We’d like to congratulate Thomas with a amazing effort, an epic journey with lots of drama, and not the least, his safe return. We have put a lot of efforts into promoting his adventure and the reactions from the public have been overwhelming. Like Thomas we had a strong belief and hope in a new world record, but we fully appreciate the weather unfortunately did not go in his favor this time.
We share his disappointment having missed the around the world record, and we celebrate what he achieved, a huge physical- and mental challenge, and a great adventure. Thomas usually says: “to win you have to finish”. We know he did all he possibly could to win, and he finished with style.
The trip has once more put the Helly Hansen Ocean gear to the test – we kept Thomas warm, dry and comfortable for the entire journey. This obviously motivates us to move on with our Ocean Racing gear, and it gives us the confidence to offer this gear to other professional ocean sailors.
