Vendée Globe: Sébastien Simon decimates the 24 hours solo monohull record

Still propelled by a fast moving depression the six leading boats continue at record speeds. This time it is Sébastien Simon's turn to set a new record for the number of miles covered in 24 hours, in a monohull and solo: 610.06 miles (or 1,129.8 kilometers) between yesterday 1200hrs UTC yesterday and today at the same time, so pushing up the 24 hour average to 25.42 knots. The skipper of Groupe Dubreuil thus improves Yoann Richomme's record by a significant 30.2 miles (579.86 miles set between 24 and 25 November) during the same event, and takes the solo mark closer to the crewed monohull mark of 640 miles.

Contacted this morning, the Les Sables d’Olonne based Simon says:

"I beat the record! It is not the goal but the boat is doing really well, there's only one metre of sea, a reasonable wind between 24 and 26 knots of wind. I have two reefs in the mainsail, under FRO, in a relatively safe configuration for the boat. It's an incredible distance, I would never have imagined doing that. In my opinion it's not over because the scenario is improving for us. And since I'm staying in the front group, I'm on this depression all the way to Bonne Espérance instead of dropping off it this evening so I'm going to continue to go at this speed for almost another full day, so there's a chance that the record will be beaten again, I hope by me. In saying that the night was hard and I collapsed from lack of sleep this morning but everything is fine. Ciao!"