Route du rhum: peak at 48.9 knots, 60,000 turns of the crank... The crazy figures of Tom Laperche's record

By crossing the Atlantic in 6 days, 13 hours 27 minutes and 40 seconds, Tom Laperche lowered the reference time established by Charles Caudrelier four years earlier by 6 hours 19 minutes and 45 seconds. Mike Birch, who opened the list in 1978, took 23 days and 7 hours. Another era!

“This record is obviously the icing on the cake, but it wasn’t a goal we were chasing. I think we can imagine going below six days with this generation of Ultim. It’s largely doable, because this year the conditions were good, but without this depression at the end of the course, we were closer to six days than seven,” explains Antoine Gautier, the technical director of the SVR-Lazartigue team.

A peak at 48.9 knots

Tom Laperche reached a top speed of 48.9 knots (90.5 km/h), but his Ultim has gone even faster in the past. The absolute record was established at the start of an attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy…