Beach Cat Crosses Atlantic in 12 Days

December 12, 2007 – Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies

This story was posted by Latitude 38's 'Lectronic Latitude' at Lectronic Latitude . There is a photo as well of the boat, but I don't have posting photos figured out yet on this site. If Quite an intriguing adventure. Note the boats she beat at the end of the article!


There's no denying that the French are showing the world the way when it comes to ballsy ocean sailing. The day before Francis Joyon set the new 24-hour record with Idec, Benoit Lequin, 33, and Pierre-Yves Moreau, 35, two other Frenchmen, established a new transatlantic record for a . . . beach cat.


The two intrepid Frenchmen raced this 20-ft beach cat 2,700 miles across the Atlantic faster than all 240 boats in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.

The very experienced duo sailed their 20-ft cat 2,700 miles from Dakar, Senegal, to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in just 11 days and 11 hours, breaking the old record by more than two days.

For sake of comparison, the first three boats to finish the 2,700 miles Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia, were the Matelot, [color:"blue"] a Southern Wind 80 [/color] , which took 12 days, 15 hours; AAG Big One, [color:"blue"] a Volvo 70 [/color] a Volvo 70 that took 12 days, 13 hours; and Venemous, [color:"blue"] a Swan 86 [/color] that took 12 days, 13 hours.

Incroyable, no?

- latitude / rs

Are those hulls a production Cat? See the pic on the link above.

They look alot like a SuperCat.

How about it Bill R? Is this boat based on one of your designs?

Wow... those "wings" don't look so comfy!

Where is the beer cooler?

I don't see a wizen stay or the poop deck.

Maybe a hole on the wing? That could explain the crew sitting leeward... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I think I have read somewere that they build it themselves

I now notice the canted daggerboards. From a distance, it looks like a nice boat to do a race like this on.

Is that curved tube on the stern a self bailing mechanism?

Look how beefy it looks, I kinda like it. Notice the winches on a 20 ft cat?

Saw the boat in Lorient last year when we were sailing an ORMA tri...

here is a pic of it on the dock.

edit... the pic was too big...

And another

The pic doesnt work...



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works for me.