Fastest crewed sailing circumnavigation

What to remember

January 2026: the trimaran Sodebo Ultim 3 completes a lap of the planet in 40 d 10 h 45 min 50 s. Thomas Coville was the skipper, with six French crew members including Guillaume Pirouelle, Nicolas Troussel and Léonard Legrand, and the attempt was aimed at the Jules Verne Trophy.

To count, a circumnavigation must start and finish at the same point, cross every meridian and cross the equator, under the rules of the World Sailing Speed Record Council, the only body entitled to ratify it since 1972. The shortest route must be at least 21,600 nautical miles, calculated as if the boat sailed around Antarctica without going south of the 63rd parallel south.

In the history, Sport-Elec posted 71 d 14 h 18 min 08 s in 1997 and Orange II 50 d 16 h 20 min 04 s in 2005. In 2017, IDEC 3 had set 40 d 23 h 30 min 30 s. Between the 1997 mark and Sodebo Ultim 3, the time was divided by 1.77. The very first circumnavigation goes back to Magellan's expedition, completed in 1522 by the crew under Juan Sebastián Elcano.