Emmanuel LANGELLIER, Media365: published on Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 1:21 pm
At 34 years old, Guirec Soudée achieved a remarkable feat by significantly improving the record for the round-the-world trip in reverse.
He led his bold venture with determination. The challenge was particularly tough, but Guirec Soudée successfully completed it with flying colors. Arriving triumphantly in Brest on Saturday after crossing the line off the coast of Ouessant, Soudée broke the record for the round-the-world trip in reverse. He not only “broke” the previous record held by Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (122 days in 2004), but the 34-year-old sailor accomplished his feat in 94 days and 21 hours.
Soudée “very happy, very moved, and very relieved”
Joy and emotion were present on Saturday afternoon in Brittany. “I can now say that I have completed my round-the-world trip. I am very happy, very moved, and very relieved to have finished because even at the end, the conditions were not simple with winds up to 35 knots and 3, 4 meters of sea,” confided the skipper of the Ultim MACSF.
“I had tears in my eyes when I crossed the line. The last time I shed a few tears like that was at the start. It was long, it was hard, often stressful, it was not trivial,” admitted Guirec Soudée, who returned “with a slightly tired boat but still valiant and very tough, which never let me down”.
“I never thought about giving up”
He was well prepared by my team and thanks to that, I went all the way. I practically covered the normal route twice (37,670 miles, approximately 70,000 km) but I made it to the end, and that’s what matters. I never thought about giving up, it never crossed my mind,” he said, mentioning his starboard foil damage caused by a bad encounter with a fishing net in the south of Madagascar.
Despite “small electronic issues, sail problems, foil problems,” Guirec Soudée was not far from pushing his boat to its maximum potential. “On average, I was at 85 or 90% of the boat’s potential, which is already pretty good. Afterwards, it must be acknowledged that luck plays a part in this type of adventure. I had everything with me, from start to finish.”
