The flying Frenchman set to smash round the world record

73天單人環球航行法國水手打破紀錄20天

They are calling him the Bob Beamon of sailing. And just like Beamon, who astonished the world with his record-breaking long-jump in 1968, the French sailor Francis Joyon is rewriting the nautical record books in an unprecedented fashion.

Joyon, 47, is now in the final stages of an incredible voyage and on course to smash the existing non-stop solo round-the-world record by 20 days. Once he crosses the finish line off the Channel port of Brest on the morning of February 3, he will have completed one of the greatest feats of single-handed sailing in history.

Just like Beamon, whose leap at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 broke the world record by an almost unbelievable 21in - which stood unbeaten until 1991 - Joyon's expected time of 73 days for the 26,000-mile global course will have far exceeded what most thought possible for a solo sailor.

Joyon set sail in November on an adventure some predicted would end in disaster. The father of four from La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany was undertaking the voyage in the 90ft trimaran IDEC, a boat of tremendous power with a huge rotating mast that had been built to be raced by a crew of up to ten.

Many were worried that Joyon would end up exhausted and IDEC would simply flip over as she ran out of control in the Southern Ocean.

Others predicted that Joyon would be unable to handle IDEC's enormous sails or that the boat could lose her mast in the rough conditions that any round-the-world sailor inevitably would face.

There were also all the usual dangers - collision with debris in the water, with ice around Antarctica or the possibility that Joyon would collide with a ship while sleeping.

When he set off, the solo record stood at 93 days. Although Joyon was sailing a much faster boat than the previous record-holder, most saw little chance of him getting even close to 80 days.

Joyon had other ideas and over the past 71 days he has enjoyed good fortune with the weather, rarely running out of wind. He has, however, also displayed extraordinary stamina, determination and seamanship in keeping IDEC running close to her full potential.

(Agencies)

他被稱為航海界的鮑勃·比蒙。正如鮑勃·比蒙1968年因打破跳遠世界記錄而震驚世界一樣，法國水手弗朗西斯·茹瓦永正在以前所未有的方式刷新航海紀錄。

茹瓦永的驚人之旅已進入最后階段，47歲的他將刷新世界紀錄，把單人不靠岸環球航海記錄縮短20天。2月3日早上，當他穿過終點布雷斯特港口時，他就將完成歷史上最偉大的單人航海紀錄之一。

1968年墨西哥奧運會上，比蒙的一跳打破了世界紀錄，而且驚人地超出21英寸，直到1991年他創造的世界紀錄才被打破。茹瓦永就像比蒙一樣，他預定73天完成兩萬六千英里的環球航海，這遠遠低于大多數人認為的單人環航可能需要的最短時間。

茹瓦永在11月起航開始他的冒險旅程，有人預測這次航行可能以災難而告終。茹瓦永來自法國布列塔尼地區的La Trinité-sur-Mer，有四個孩子。他駕駛的是90英尺長的三體帆船愛德克。這種船的動力極大，船上安裝了巨大的旋轉桅桿，是為有十名船員的團體比賽而設計的。

許多人擔心茹瓦永最后會筋疲力盡，愛德克艇也將在南部海洋失控而翻船。

還有人預測茹瓦永無法控制愛德克艇上巨大的帆，艇上的桅桿也可能會在惡劣的環境中倒下，這是任何一個環球航行的水手都不可避免會遇到的。

還有各種常見的危險情況——撞到水中的殘骸，南極洲周圍的冰塊，茹瓦永睡覺的時候也可能撞上其他的船只。

他出發的時候，單人航海世界記錄是93天。盡管茹瓦永駕駛的帆船比前世界記錄保持者的快的多，但是大多數人都認為他不太可能在近80天內完成航海。

茹瓦永則不這么認為。在過去的71天中，他運氣不錯，天氣條件很好，差不多一直都有風。盡管如此，他仍舊表現出驚人的毅力、決心和駕駛技術，讓帆船始終接近全速前進。

Long jump: 跳遠
Break the record: 打破紀錄
Finish line: 終點線
Single-handed: 獨自一人的
Unbeaten: 未被打破的
Set sail: 啟航
Flip: 翻轉

（中國日報網站譯）

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