Thursday departure imminent

Bruno Peyron speaks to James Boyd about his forthcoming Jules Verne attempt

Since 1993 when he became the first man ever to sail around the world non-stop in less than 80 days, the first to win the Jules Verne Trophy for this achievement Bruno Peyron has been a busy man. He subsequently created The Race and caused a new generation of giant racing multihulls to be built. But being organiser of The Race prevented him sailing in it and ever since he has been craving to another crack at the Jules Verne Trophy record, this time one of his new creations.

With sponsorship from mobile phone company Orange, Peyron's dream may be on the verge of coming true with the departure of his latest record imminent. madforsailing spoke to him at his home in La Baule about the attempt.

Peyron says that it is mostly likely they will leave later this week. "The weather window seems to be okay on Thursday. So maybe we will leave Wednesday evening so that it is easier to cross the line Thursday morning." If the weather does not come right for them (see the wind vector charts on page 4) then they will wait to race against Olivier de Kersauson's giant trimaran Geronimo.

Currently de Kersauson's big tri is awaiting the arrival of a new mast from builders Espace Composite. "Olivier is suppost to receive his mast on the 15th. He just told me yesterday he will need three to five days to be ready. If this window didn't exist it would be fun to start together. On the other hand we have no right to avoid this one."

A look at the wind charts (see page three) indicate favourable winds to get Orange rapidly out of the Bay of Biscay between Thursday until Saturday and Peyron says that it looks likely they will hook into another weather system fairly soon after. It is an opportunity too good to miss and as a result yesterday the crew spent all morning loading supplies on to their 110ft catamaran, currently moored up in Brest. By last night they were ready to roll.

Peyron will not be drawn on how many days their attempt might take. For him the objective is simply to break de Kersauson's existing record of 71 days 14 hours 22 minutes and 8 seconds. "I don't know and honestly I don't care [about the time]. The goals are very progressive. We just want to beat the record and do our best and try to get the best time we can," he says.

If Orange makes it round in one piece then the current thinking is that it will not be a case of if she beats the record, but by how much. Sport Elec, de Kersauson's old trimaran was 90ft long and built 15 years ago, although she was heavily modified over that period. Compared to the 18 month old Orange, a state of the art design by Gilles Ollier & Associates, Sport Elec was an older, smaller boat.

An indication of Orange's potential has already shown during The Race when Club Med completed her circumnavigation in 62 days 7 hours. On The Race Club Med sailed 25,000 miles compared to the official Trophy Jules Verne course which starts and finishes on a line between Ouessant and the Lizard and is around 26,500 miles long.

But The Race required boats to pass through Cook Strait between New Zealand's North and South Islands and started and finished in the Med, where conditions are usually lighter than the Bay of Biscay. The World Sailing Speed Record Council who arbitate on such matters ruled that the course for The Race did not conform their definition of a round the world record because the start and finish were in different places (the start was in Barcelona, the finish in Marseilles).

continued on page two...