All shipshape and clockwise as Chomette beats deadlines

Sailing: The 60-footer Cityjet/Irish Times, which began its southabout journey on Tuesday at 6.33pm, crossed the finishing line at the Kish Lighthouse off Dún Laoghaire at 4.14am yesterday, in a time of 57 hours and 41 minutes, smashing the previous record - set by the Irish Independent Challenger monohull in 2002 - by 17 hours and 46 minutes.

Knocking 17 hours off the Round Ireland record is impressive enough but the fact the clockwise navigation was completed with only a single tack and two gybes has left many old salts open-mouthed.

Jean-Philippe Chomette's crew included co-skipper César Dohy, Matthieu Vincent, and the British former Whitbread sailor and BT Global Challenge skipper Chris Tibbs. On mainsail was yachtsman Patrick Tabarly, brother of the great Eric Tabarly, who drowned in the Irish sea after falling from his yacht Pen Duick I in 1998.

The impressive odyssey, which breaks the sub-three-day barrier for the first time, brought warm praise from National Yacht Club commodore Con Murphy at a prizegiving ceremony for the eight-man crew yesterday afternoon at the Dún Laoghaire clubhouse.

The scale of the win has inspired some of Ireland's key offshore skippers, who say they will now bid for the Cork Dry Gin Cup, which is firmly in French hands.

The point is being made in some quarters that yesterday's and Irish Independent's 2002 times were weather-based results - that these crews could pick start times to suit them - whereas Royal Irish skipper Colm Barrington, for example, had to play the hand he was dealt when he set a course record within the confines of the 1998 race.

Of course the point is well made. There are effectively three multicrewed monohull sailing records. Two are within the Round Ireland race structure: first home on the water and first home on handicap. Yesterday's result is an unashamed speed record that can be sailed for at any time.

First up to attempt to reclaim the speed title is likely to be former holder Daragh Cafferkey, the co-owner of Irish Independent Challenger, who gave a declaration of intent to the National Yacht Club's Chris Moore before Cityjet/Irish Times had even crossed the finish line.

Yesterday, Galway's Eamonn Conneelly threw his hat into the ring with a promise to make a challenge in his new TP52 Patches, which races this season with two British Olympic medallists.

Howth's David Nixon, the skipper of the Volvo 60 that beat Cityjet on the water in last year's Round Ireland race, said yesterday he is also looking seriously at attacking the record.

All three skippers, however, will need to heed the current holder, who says he was blessed with the weather window and perfect timing, making it unlikely any rival 60-footer could beat his mark.

Dohy and Tibbs admit, however, there was still room for improvement and they did suffer some small setbacks.

It had taken them up to 45 minutes to free themselves from a fishing net off the south coast on Tuesday night. They also conceded that although they tacked only once over the 704-mile course, they might have saved another hour if they done so earlier.

Chomette agrees the record is beatable but reckons it will most likely be bettered by a modern maxi-type yacht such as the Kiwi yacht, Shockwave, the new breed of carbon fibre 90-footer.

Regardless of what further entries arrive in to the National Yacht Club this year, yesterday was a day to savour.

Having sailed 2,200 miles from Marseilles to La Rochelle the crew sailed a further two days to Dún Laoghaire before immediately embarking on their record-breaking run last Tuesday.

Before they left the Dún Laoghaire marina I asked Tibbs and Chomette just what time we could expect if they got a fair wind. In a response that was far from rehearsed, Tibbs said two days. Chomette added an extra 12 hours.

Little can they have known just how prophetic was their dockside estimate.

In an elapsed time of two and one-third days Cityjet/Irish Times arrived back to Dún Laoghaire after an epic sail that broke the mould in Round Ireland record-breaking.