Record in the balance

Orange II has to average 22.9 knots to beat Fossett's record, but will she have to gybe?

This morning at 0400 Orange II had 270 miles left to go in her bid to break PlayStation's record for the west to east transatlantic crossing.

PlayStation's impressively fast time for the crossing was 4 days 17 hours 28 minutes and 6 seconds. This means that Peyron will have to pass this Lizard this afternoon before 15:12:44 GMT (16:12:44BST) in order to break the record. With 270 miles to cover in slightly less than 12 hours Orange II will have to average more than 22.9 knots, which she is more than capable of.

However as the chart above indicates, the team have ended up sailing a course further north than they perhaps would have wanted and at present, with the wind still in the northwest it looks like they may have to put in an unfavourable gybe if they are going to round Land's End. In their favour is that the wind is forecast to veer slightly further north this morning, but it looks unlikely that this will be enough for them to make it round.

Even at this late stage this record is doable and for Peyron's team it will be a great endorsement of their boat, which by all rights should be the world's fastest offshore boat being the newest of the G-Class.