Fastest man on the planet

James Boyd spoke to Orange skipper Bruno Peyron about his latest triumph

During the voyage Peyron made some fairly unusual tactical moves, probably the most exceptional being when Orange broke textbook rules and sailed straight across the St Helena high on her return up the South Atlantic. Peyron says that he did this firstly because he was able to due to the speed potential of Orange, but also because they were much more confident than they had been in 1993. Then they were sailing a boat designed for sailing across the Atlantic. This time they were in a 110 footer purpose built for this job.

"Compared to 1993 we had more potential and we were more confident with our strategy to play some games," says Peyron. "I am very attracted to playing with the weather systems. Like when we surfed around the high on the way back from the Horn, then when we succeeded in crossing the high ridge of St Helena and five days afterwards we were just flying at 25-30 knots. I know very well how hard it is to be dead beating along the Brazil coast. So I was very happy to take the route we did".

However it was not all experimentation. "The other thing was that we didn't have much choice because to the left of us was this big low with 70 knot winds! We just found a little hole between the two - I think nobody could have passed on the left".

After going around the houses southbound in the Atlantic to avoid the St Helena high, the worst part of the trip weatherwise had come in the Indian Ocean. "When we finished the South Atlantic crossing, we entered the south with a bad weather system because we had north westerly winds. It is a lot better to enter with southwesterlies because then you can just go on starboard direct to Kerguelen. When you enter with northwesterlies you are in deep shit because you have two choices - either you go dead south or dead east and on the weather models we had everywhere it said we were going to get 70 knots two days later if we went south."

Peyron says that they chose to go east at this point they were still tentative about pushing hard due to of the top mast breakage they had experienced the first time they had set off on this record attempt. "Because of the trauma of pushing the boat after its mast problem and the future of this campaign, before starting we decided that any time we had any doubt we would choose the safe way. So that is why we chose the east, trying to avoid the 70 knots...but two days later we got them! So maybe it was a mistake strategically, because we gained nothing and we still had the storm, but if I had to make the choice again I wouldn't do it differently."

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