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The time is around two and a half days longer than the record set in the 2005 edition, but in ideal conditions RIOU improved on the 2003 Dover-Calais record on Tuesday night, setting a new time of 1 hour, 8 minutes and 57 seconds at an average speed of 7.35 knots. Dominique WAVRE (SUI) and his crew on Temenos arrived in glorious sunshine around lunch time on Wednesday and since then a flurry of new arrivals saw Generali just beat Artemis Ocean Racing for fifth, Maisonneuve take seventh, Roxy eighth, Cheminées Poujoulat ninth and Akena Verandas complete the top ten.

PRB's 'bulletproof' performance and much deserved first place in this Calais Round Britain Race is perhaps best described by one of RIOU's crew, Hugues DESTREMAU (FRA), a celebrated match racer and ORMA trimaran specialist. 'There were a few critical points in the race where I was really impressed by Vincent's accuracy of judgement. We were neck and neck with Jean LE CAM, for whom Vincent has a lot of respect, and a couple of times we had a really important strategic decision to make. He knew exactly what to do and when, without hesitation. As Jean didn't make the same move he had to wonder if perhaps LE CAM had different weather information. Very, very impressive! It was tough, long, challenging, but most of all fun. It was a really good team who worked their butts off!'

BEYOU Comeback

Around six hours after RIOU, second placed BEYOU on Delta Dore made Calais after a fantastic comeback from the bottom of the fleet at the start of the race. 'We had a very bad start. I don't know if we were surprised, or we were unlucky or we were bad - I'm not really sure. We ended up a long way back in any case. You can't make a comeback if you don't have a boat that goes fast and if you don't make the right tacks, and to make the right tacks you need good people aboard who spend their time working on the weather. Also, when you're behind, sometimes it's easier as you can see what the others are doing.'

Three hours on, LE CAM completed the podium and was clearly a little sad not to have won given that, like every other skipper here, he had come to Calais for that very reason. However, he will take with him some useful lessons. 'If you are preparing for the Vendée Globe then it was very important to be here. Added to that, sailing in crewed configuration where everyone is at 100 % it is only then that you understand the true potential of your boat and I'm very happy with it.'

Fourth placed Swiss skipper WAVRE echoed LE CAM's thoughts and admitted to having 'misplayed the descent of the North Sea' and not having done the boat justice, but in second or third place for the majority of the race he was clearly doing something right! 'We're very happy with her, just a few holes in our sail wardrobe that we need to work on in the light conditions.'