Vendée Globe: “And it’s not over!”, in rocket mode, Sébastien Simon sets a new 24-hour distance record

Taking full advantage of the depression caught by the front of the Vendée Globe fleet, Sébastien Simon crushed the record for the distance covered in 24 hours on Wednesday with 604.62 miles (or 1119.75 kilometers) covered in the South Atlantic.

“Hello team, 602 miles in 24 hours! I, who don’t chase records, well this one is for us”rejoiced the skipper of Groupe Dubreuil in a voice note sent to his team this morning, pointing to third place in the general classification at 11:00 a.m. “It’s an incredible distance, I never would have imagined doing that! And in my opinion it's not over (..) I managed to stay in the front group so I'm accompanying the depression to the Cape of Good Hope.he appreciated.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday 10:30 a.m., the Vendée sailor traveled at an average speed of 25.11 knots (46 km/h) and improved by 22.7 miles the record of Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkea) established two days earlier thanks to the same weather phenomenon.

Launched for several days on the heels of the first two, Charlie Dalin (Macif) and Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable), the 34-year-old sailor from Vendée has completed an impeccable race since the gun went off, relying on the qualities of his sailboat ultra-efficient.

This Imoca with foils launched in August 2021 won the Ocean Race (crewed round-the-world race with stopovers) under the colors of the American team 11th Hour, before being bought by the Vendée company Groupe Dubreuil .

Winner of the Solitaire du Figaro in 2018, Simon had already made a thunderous start to the 2020/2021 Vendée Globe, passing the Cape of Good Hope in fourth position before giving up after hitting an Ofni.