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Around the world in 42 days

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Brest: French sailor François Gabart smashed six days and 10 hours off sailing’s around the world record on Sunday producing what many pundits felt was a previously unthinkable time of 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds.


Huge crowds of well-wishers were on hand to welcome the sailor into the port of Brest, accompanied by dozens of small craft as he burned flares at the helm and was carried aloft to shore by his ground crew where he popped a bottle of champagne. “I’m aching all over and it’s been like that for weeks, weeks since a proper sleep, I can hardly go on,” an exhausted Gabart told the press on his ecstatic arrival in port. “I’ve been at sea all alone for 40-days and now suddenly I’m surrounded by everyone here it’s amazing, I really only thought I had a slender chance of breaking the record,” he claimed.


“It was hard and I was on the very edge of things the whole time.”


The 34-year-old sailor crossed a virtual finish line between the island of Ushant off France’s northwest tip and Lizard Point in southwest England at 0145 GMT, ripping to shreds the previous record set by compatriot Thomas Coville last year by a massive six days and 10 hours. Moments before crossing the finish line Gabart, a father of two and engineer by trade, sent out an emotional video showing his boat’s progress on a computer monitor.


“The little blue is us, the red line is the finish. We should cut it soon, the computer says 30 seconds,” he said, wiping his eyes. The race time was announced by an observer from the World Sailing Speed Council but will be subject to checks of the boat’s black box and its GPS data before final confirmation.


“I have cargo ships and fishing boats around me in the dark here and it all seems strange and extraordinary.” — AFP


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