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Francis JOYON (FRA) and IDEC departed the French port of Brest at 11:05:52 French time on Friday morning to reclaim the solo round the world record from Ellen MACARTHUR (GBR). MACARTHUR set the current record of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds in November 2004-February 2005, beating the time set by JOYON in 2004 by just over a day.

Before leaving JOYON emphasized the importance of making a fast start. "It is important not to be too far behind Ellen MACARTHUR's time at the Equator, since she experienced very favourable conditions in this section," he said.

So far the first three days at sea have gone exactly to plan. IDEC covered 451 miles across the Bay of Biscay on her first 24 hours at sea and then continued to pick up speed along the coast of Spain.

At 07:20 this morning IDEC was already in the Canaries recording an average speed above 20 knots. JOYON continues to benefit from favourable weather conditions, allowing him to "descend" nearly due south (at a heading of 190 degrees) to the equator. By Sunday IDEC had already passed the 1,000 mile mark and at 07:00 today, 1,173 miles of the 21,600 had been completed. This puts JOYON 100 miles ahead of the record-pace of MACARTHUR.

Trimaran IDEC - www.trimaran-idec.com