Press Release 78
Saturday 17th January 2009
A Round of Emotions on a Round the World
On Saturday at 1041 hours UTC, Thomas Coville and Sodeb'O completed their
circumnavigation of the globe in 59 days, 20 hours, 47 minutes and 43
seconds. An hour and a half later, the skipper made landfall.
After 28,125 miles around the world single-handed, in a trimaran, Thomas
Coville tied up his 32 m bird in Brest’s commercial port, NW France. “I’ve
got the boat back”, he murmurs, his eyes closed as he hugs Joseph Bougro
tightly. “You’ve done more than that”, assures the founder of Sodeb'O, his
sponsor. On the yacht a little girl’s eyes sparkle, conveying their
admiration for the sailor. For her father. Thomas Coville is back from a
voyage as fantastic as it was terrible. The child’s wonder is synonymous
with all those who have followed his journey.
The microphones bend towards the skipper with his eyes reddened by
exhaustion. It’s already time for him to spill the beans and sum up, in a
matter of seconds, the two months he’s spent at sea. “I gave it my all; I
didn’t let up for a minute, he says before being overcome by emotion. I set
out to get the record and that’s something I wasn’t able to achieve.” It’s
already time to answer the next question. A tear escapes. The sailor
eventually wipes it away with his battered hands. Can we read on his hands
all the effort he’s had to put into this campaign? Embraces follow with his
nearest and dearest and afterwards he has to apologise for his handshakes:
his hands are such a mess that he can’t manage a strong grip.
Further questions ensue. In order to answer, Thomas doesn’t look at his
fellow creatures but at the sky and his multihull. “I’ve experienced
something very deep with this boat, a total osmosis, which is a rare thing.
She reacted and behaved exceptionally. It’s unimaginable. She was incredibly
sound downwind. I committed her to the water up to halfway up the trampoline
and she came back up. She never let me down”. The skipper doesn’t stop
singing the praises about his alter ego and skilfully evades each
compliment. “I’m happy to see the boat in good condition, observes Benoît
Cabaret, Sodeb'O’s architect, but it’s the skipper, more than the boat,
which I’m impressed with.” Nevertheless, Thomas knows that the trimaran has
really taken some knocks and that there are cracks down below. “The boat has
been battered, and me too.” From the outside, you couldn’t guess. Right up
to the finish line and the entrance to the Brest channel, the skipper
remained concentrated. “It’s a dangerous and very complicated place to deal
with single-handed. The last night was very special. I was keen to stay
under 60 days. I didn’t imagine I could stretch myself so far. On shore, you
set yourself limits which don’t exist.”
From now on Thomas Coville is one of just three people to have
circumnavigated the globe single-handed aboard a multihull without
stopovers. In 59 days, 20 hours, 47 minutes and 43 seconds, he has covered
28,125 miles at an average speed of 19.6 knots. As such he has effectively
looped the loop in an extra 2 days, 7 hours and 13 minutes to Francis Joyon,
but having covered 1,725 miles more, Thomas Coville was the fastest. “He has
to realise this, insists Patricia Brochard, director of Sodeb'O. This
reminds me of great explorers who set off without knowing what they were
going to discover.”
Back from his voyage, Thomas Coville knows there is more he wants to
discover. He already has his travel warrant. “Give me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can change
and the wisdom to know the difference,” confided Thomas on quoting Marc
Aurèle. “It’s going to take me a while to find the wisdom.”
AUDIO, VIDEO, IMAGES AND CARTOGRAPHY ACCESSIBLE FROM THE press zone on the
site www.sodebo-voile.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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