PARIS // French sailor Thomas Coville arrived in the port of Brest on Monday morning, hours after smashing the world record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.
Coville, 48, crossed a finish line off France's Brittany coast on Sunday after a voyage of 49 days three hours seven minutes and 38 seconds in his 31-metre trimaran, slashing more than eight days off the previous record.
He spent a final night on his boat "unwinding" before sailing to Brest, where he was given a hero's welcome.
"I am very happy to have achieved this dream," Coville said.
"I've been working on it for 10 years ... the emotion is intense," he said, adding, "The biggest dreams don't come true at the first time of asking."
It was his fifth attempt to beat a record set in 2008 by Francis Joyon, another Frenchman, who sailed round the world in 57 days and 13 hours. Coville's Sodebo Ultim yacht achieved an average speed of 24.1 knots (44.6 kilometres per hour).
"Mentally I had my highs and my lows but I knew where I wanted to get to," he told Le Parisien newspaper.
He said he did not sleep more than three hours at a stretch during his voyage.
"Physically I could not have gone much further."
* Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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