Thursday departure imminent

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

For Orange to succeed it will also take a certain amount of luck. Although when sailing precious little of the boat is in the water, the devastation that can be caused should the boat collide with a submerged object was amply demonstrated on Cam Lewis' transatlantic record attempt last year with the result that her port bow broke off.

"When you put so much energy and attention into the reliability and you change everything and so on, you have a strong feeling that the boat is very well prepared, it is very fast, the potential of the machine is there and the potential of the crew is very high," says Peyron. "Then we are confident in the way we can play with the weather. But at the end of the day the worst danger is something floating in the middle of the water. There's nothing we can do about that."

The question mark remains over whether Peyron's 110ft catamaran is faster than de Kersauson's 110ft tri. My money is on Orange which has the more powerful wingmast rig and is almost certainly lighter, but is also more tried and tested than Geronimo. Peyron, an offshore catamaran sailor of some 25 years, understandably agrees. "Of course I trust my conviction. But I am not sure, that is why it is so interesting. Olivier's boat is the first The Race generation big trimaran and nobody knows. It might be a bit faster than us in light airs and against the wind. And we should be more comfortable in heavy air downwind and bad seas." In short the tri is potentially better in the Atlantic and the cat in the Southern Ocean.

The current Jules Verne attempts will be fascinating to watch with the potential for the 24 hour record falling again and the magical 700 mile day barrier broken (currently Steve Fossett's PlayStation holds the record with 687.17nm set on their transatlantic record attempt last October). This will only be eclipsed by the two seperate attempts to be made in a year's time by Ellen MacArthur and Tracy Edwards, whom it is believed will be sailing the former Club Med (all will be revealed later this month...)

"I think the future of this class in England may be more crazy than in France," Peyron finishes. And he's right. In the current sponsorship climate in the UK it seems only women can raise the necessary sponsorship to mount such a campaign...

See page four for the expected wind conditions...