Sailing: Edwards ready for records

Just as Tracy Edwards was celebrating the re-christening of her 92-foot catamaran by the Vendee Globe hero, Pete Goss, in Southampton yesterday, the most difficult of her record-breaking challenges looked like being made harder by a Frenchman, writes Stuart Alexander.

Edwards, 34, sails to Newport, Rhode Island, on Monday ahead of a bid next month to break the transatlantic record of six days, 13 hours, three minutes set by the another Frenchman, Serge Madec, in Jet Services in 1990.

But the main event is the round the world time set by the boat she has bought and refurbished as Royal & Sun Alliance. As Enza, it won the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994 with a time of 74 days, 22hr 17min 22sec. That record is now under threat from Olivier de Kersauson, whose 90-foot trimaran Sport-Elec is 800 miles ahead of Enza's equivalent position with 12 days to go.