Italian duo break sailing record from Dakar to Guadeloupe

POINT-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe (Reuters) - An Italian father and son duo have sailed their way into the record books after taking just over 11 days to cross the Atlantic in a catamaran.

Nico and Vittorio Malingri arrived in the Guadeloupe port town of Pointe-à-Pitre on Thursday, 11 days, one hour and nine minutes after leaving Dakar in Senegal, the World Sailing Speed Record Council said.

The time was 10 hours, 16 minutes quicker than the previous mark set by French duo Benoit Lequin and Pierre-Yves Moreau in 2007.

"Guys, the experience was spectacular, we were always on target, the boat was great to travel on," Nico Malingri said.

"We started to get tired towards the end but up until then we were happy with our average speed, we were doing well, it was a lot of fun."

The distance from Senegal to Guadeloupe is around 4,725 km (2935 miles), roughly the same as between New York and San Francisco.

(Writing by Patrick Johnston in LONDON)