Fossett to set sail today?

An update on those looking to make attempts on the non-stop around the world record

It's January and the round the world record breaking season is now fully upon us.

Utter hero Francis Joyon, due to cross the Equator later today and still very much on course to be the first man to sail around the world singlehanded in less than 80 days, and Jean-Luc van den Heede, continuing to slog his way around the world singlehanded in the opposite direction, are soon to be joined on the 'ultimate loop' over the next few weeks by three G-class maxi catamarans. Each is setting off on a bid to be fastest boat non-stop around the world.

First to get underway will be Steve Fossett who as we write looks set to leave this afternoon. The American adventurer and his crew on board Cheyenne have been poised awaiting the right weather window since mid-December and are positively chomping at the bit to get going. During our interview with him recently Steve Fossett said that ideal he was looking to set off on the northerly winds generated on the east side of a high pressure system.

A weather scenario similar to the one Fossett hopes for is developing this weekend. Today (Friday) there are westerlies in the Western Approaches, but a front associated with a high pressure system centred to the north of the Azores is forecast to go through this evening which will see the wind veer round to the north.

All would be ideal except that instead of one gigantic high pressure system dominating the whole of the western seaboard of Europe - instead there are two. The second is currently centred to the northwest of Madeira (due west from the Strait of Gibraltar) and looks to be almost stationary or moving very slowly southeast in the time it will take Cheyenne to zoom past it.

So if Cheyenne sets sail tomorrow afternoon they will have to tackle the transistion zone between the two systems off northwest Spain sometime during Saturday night-Sunday morning. Once through they should have a reasonably swift run south hugging the African coast as they track around the east of the second high.

We have learned this morning that Olivier de Kersauson and the crew of Geronimo have decided not to leave at the same time. They too are ready to go and are on standby waiting for the right weather window. De Kersauson who is the world expert on this particular course having set out on the Jules Verne Trophy seven times now is less enthusiastic about the weather scenario this weekend. Having broken every record until he got to Cape Horn on his Jules Verne attempt last year only to see his chances evaporate as he returned - slowly - up the Atlantic, the old sea dog is understandably reluctant to leave until absolutely the optimum conditions are in place. He would much rather see 25 or 30 knot northerlies up the 'derriere' rather than the 15-20 knots forecast for the weekend.

Bruno Peyron meanwhile is still in the process of working up his brand new maxi-cat Orange and the latest information suggests that the earliest he will be leaving is mid to late February. This should not constitute a problem - when Peyron set the present Jules Verne Trophy record he didn't depart until 2 March. With Peyron leaving later it could easily be that Fossett or de Kersauson sets a new record and hold on to it for just a few days until it is demolished by Peyron's new state-of-the-art and presumably much faster second generation G-Class catamaran.

If no ideal weather window materialises between now and mid-February then it is possible that Geronimo and Orange may leave together to match race their way around the world.