Fun fact: the fastest way to get around the world by boat is on a sailboat. Wild, but true.
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Faster than an American attack submarine or aircraft carrier?
In a word, probably (but without documented speed runs who knows?).
Circumnavigation is a longer voyage than those craft would travel in one go, and the stops would increase their transit time. Even without that it would be a close competition with the latest class of racing sailboats that are able able to maintain very similar speeds, and the next generation will be decidedly faster.
Things have changed.
American submarines and aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered. They can sustain over 30 knots without stopping effectively indefinitely. They make their own water and, where needed, breathing air. The only thing they need to stop for is food, and they have enough aboard to circumnavigate the globe easily.
It would be really hard to sustain an average speed of 30 knots in a sailing vessel for the entire journey. Certainly you'd need the assistance of the wind deities of your choice. Central to commercial travel by wind is the predictability or lack thereof with wind power. It would be tough to run a tight supply chain when you don't know when one's ship will arrive within a reasonable window. For that reason, I think the future can't really be purely wind-powered for most commodities, it's just not predictable enough to build schedules around.
That’s correct, but look up the Gitana 17.
> The Gitana 17 is a 100ft trimaran designed to foil offshore at sustained speeds of 45 knots or more.
Also, 1964, the all-nuclear Task Force One, including the USS Enterprise, completed a high-speed circumnavigation in 65 days.
The winner of the Vende Globe did it in 64. And that was solo (one person on board).
The Vende Globe is ~44k km (Mm?) and Operation Sea Orbit was ~49k km.
But the Vende Globe is restricted to monohulls (i.e. no hydrofoil trimarans) and as you wrote, is more about individual skills.