A nail-biter right up to the end. With no more wind and no more food, their lead over the old record, built up over 2,500 miles of sailing, was disappearing.

But Vittorio and Nico Malingri made it, and Feel Good, their six meter  catamaran, slipped by the red buoy off Pointe-à-Pitre as the WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Record Council) judges’ stopped their chronometers, confirming the new record.

“The old man and the dwarf” annihilated the current record for the Dakar – Guadalupe route, crossing the line after 11 days, one hour and eleven minutes of sailing; ten hours less than the French duo of Pierre-Yves Moreau and Benoît Lequin in 2007.

The last miles were the most difficult: a capsize 100 miles from the finish (where they just managed to keep their cat from turning turtle); then the wind disappeared within sight of the island. “It was an unbelievable situation”, said Vittorio on the sat-phone, “watching our hard earned lead dwindle to nothing in just a few minutes in the calm”.

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