Armel Le Cleac'h held off Britain's Alex Thomson in a tight finish to maintain France's perfect record in the solo round-the-world Vendee Globe sailing race on Thursday.
After finishing second in 2009 and 2013, Le Cleac'h, aboard Banque Populaire, won in a record time of 74 days, three hours, 35 minutes and 46 seconds to become the eighth Frenchman to win the race in eight editions.
The 39-year-old was greeted by thousands fans in freezing temperatures in Les Sables d'Olonne on the Atlantic Ocean.
Irish sailor Enda O'Coineen (below) has vowed to complete the gruelling race despite being towed to safety from the Southern Ocean earlier this month.
The 60-year-old saw his first attempt at the race end after his boat's mast broke in high winds, and he had to cut his rig adrift in the choppy waters to save the hull of the boat from being damaged.
However he's still not giving up hope of completing the course, and is considering starting again from the point where his original trip ended.
Thomson, who led the race aboard Hugo Boss until his starboard foil was damaged about eight weeks ago, is set to take second place in the early hours of Friday.
He threatened a late comeback in the finale, breaking the world record for the most distance sailed solo in 24 hours when he covered 536.8 nautical miles earlier this week.
Le Cleac'h, however, extended his lead on Wednesday to beat the fastest mark set by previous winner Francois Gabart in 2013 by almost four days.
"Sailing culture makes the difference here. The best boats are made in South Brittany," said sailor Sebastien Picault, who worked on Banque Populaire's foil.
"Hugo Boss is a fine boat with huge bursts of speed, but it struggles in upwind conditions while Banque Populaire is a better all-rounder."
They were 29 sailors at the start of the non-stop race on 6 November 6 at the Sable d'Olonne and 11 of them have already called it quits.
The last sailor, Sebastien Destremau, aboard TechnoFirst-FaceOcean, still has to go through the feared Cape Horn as he lies almost 10,000 miles behind Le Cleac'h.
