#roundireland - The World Sailing Speed Record Council has ratified a new Round Ireland Outright World Record set by Sidney Gavignet (FRA) and a crew of 5 on the MOD70 trimaran Musandam-Oman Sail. They completed the 698nm route on May 4-6 in a time of 40:51:57, posting an average speed of 17.08 knots. The previous record of 44:42:20 set in 1993 was held by Steve Fossett on Lakota. 

#englishchannelsailing – The San Francisco-based Lending Club report that its CEO Renaud Laplanche and co-skipper Ryan Breymaier established a new world speed sailing record across the English Channel.

The sailors went from the Royal Yacht Squadron Cowes, Isle of Wight to Dinard, France, in 5 hours, 15 minutes, subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, aboard their 105-foot offshore trimaran Lending Club 2 at an average speed of 26.36 knots.

Other crewmembers included Jan Majer, Stanislas Delbarre, Olivier Laplanche, navigator Boris Herrmann, French racing veterans Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant and Roland Jourdain, and OBR Quin Bisset. Shore-based weather routing was provided by Wouter Verbraak.

The previous record of 5 hours, 23 minutes was established by skipper Brian Thompson, Irish navigator Adrienne Cahalan and the crew of Maiden II, a 110-foot catamaran, in September 2002 at an average speed of 25.6 knots.