Alexia Barrier and her all-female sailing team plan to break the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe.
The Famous Project will see Barrier and her team of nine international sailors take a 105-foot (32m) Ultim trimaran on a non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation, with the goal of smashing both records and gender norms. The vessel in question is none other than Idec Sport, which is the fastest maxi-trimaran in the world to date - and known as the Formula 1 of the seas.
It was with this speed machine that Francis Joyon set the existing record for the Jules Verne Trophy, completing the voyage in 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes, and 30 seconds in 2017. “It was the boat of my dreams to realize this project,” Barrier said in a statement. “A major project that, in addition to sport, wants to give women the same weapons as men to win engaging races.”
The first training sessions are scheduled for July. Barrier doesn’t expect that training will be a cakewalk, either. “Our first challenge will be to train our crew with skippers who have never sailed on this type of machine,” she adds. “Forgetting everything to start all over again, that’s what awaits us.” The team will then attempt the Jules Verne Trophy in 2025.
The first Jules Verne Trophy was awarded in 1992 to the first yacht to have sailed around the world in less than 80 days. (The trophy takes its name from Jules Verne’s 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days.) In the past 25 years, 19 teams have tried to beat the standing record of which nine have succeeded.
Hopefully, that changes to 10 next year. And maybe it will be the fastest circumnavigation too...