NOC Into the Blue Podcast · National Oceanography Centre

Has Climate Change Made It Impossible to Break Sailing Records? | Into the Blue Podcast

·27 min

Dee Kafari brings a sailor's problem to the mic. She is preparing for a new all-female Jules Verne attempt and wants to know whether climate change is already reshaping the record. The current mark stands at 40 days, 23 hours, and 23 minutes, and it has held for seven years. Ben Mote answers from his long experience at the National Oceanography Centre, where he has been based since around 1995. The conversation starts with the question that matters most to a sailor: are the changes real, are they significant, and are they changing the race? Kafari describes six laps of the planet over 20 years and noticing changes without always knowing how to read them. Mote links those observations to warming water and to the way ice responds from below as conditions shift. He describes larger and larger chunks of Antarctica breaking away. Some of these pieces are not really small icebergs at all. They can be landmass-sized slabs, large enough to compare with Greater London. As they drift north through the Southern Ocean, they break apart in warmer water and under the sun. The talk also reaches the practical side of racing. Modern routes use a safety wall that keeps boats north of dangerous ice. That wall is moving farther north, which makes the trip longer in geographic terms. Wind strength may also be part of that picture. The team also talks about boat performance, including a T-rudder and the tiny gains that can add up. Kafari is already into shakedown work, trials, and the long process of getting the boat to perform consistently. The episode ends with the sense that the record will depend on science, seamanship, and a lot of small increments working together.

As heard by us

A sailing record question turns into a grounded look at warming oceans, shifting ice, and a longer route.

Dee Kafari's question gives the episode a clean, practical frame: if the ocean and ice keep changing, can the Jules Verne record still fall next year?

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Why you'd press play

Can a round-the-world record survive a warmer, icier, longer route?

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