How an All-Female Crew Took on the Jules Verne Trophy - Lapping the Planet (Part 4)

When Alexia Barrier's giant trimaran, The Famous Project crossed the Ushant finishing line off the Brittany coast after 57 days at sea, she and her crew entered the record books. The eight strong crew were now the first all female crew to complete a non-stop circumnavigation. Their initial target was to make an assault on the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest fully crewed lap of the planet in the trimaran that had set the record that has only just fallen back in 2017. And while they knew this target was ambitious, they were also aiming to set a new reference time for an all female crew. And that is now done. The only previous all female campaign was by Tracy Edwards aboard Royal & Sun Alliance back in 1998 which ended in the Southern Ocean after the cat was dismasted. And when you look at the overall stats for the race it's easy to see what a challenge this has been for anyone that has taken it on. Until 2025 there had been 30 Jules Verne attempts in total and only 14 had successfully circumnavigated the globe. Of these, only 9 had achieved a record. So, as The Famous Project became the 16th to complete the course they entered the record book too. Having followed their progress in our three previous Jules Verne reports, in this episode we look at how their race around the world played out.