24 hours to go

Orange due to finish Tuesday night but will reach Brest Wednesday morning says Peyron

The maxi-catamaran Orange II should complete its round the world tomorrow night, Tuesday. Her predicted race time will be 50 days and around ten hours - more than one week off the record.

Having made 630 miles over the past 24 hours, the route to Brest now seems free of obstacles. Ideally positioned in front of an Atlantic depression, Orange II will be able to maintain this pace with, of course, one established rule that has been the guiding principal throughout this hopefully soon to be victorious campaign: not taking any unconsidered risks, constantly checking all the gear, making sure it's as good as new. The wind has been blowing at over 30 knots from the southwest since last night. Bruno Peyron and his navigator Roger Nilson are waiting for the wind to back more to the south wind and build, further aiding their progress towards Ouessant.

"Conditions are fine," said Bruno Peyron this afternoon. "We have a 30 knot southwesterly. We're on a broad reach with one reef in the mainsail and the small gennaker. We went a little off course 20 minutes ago so we're going to put in a reef. It's like we're doing the Mediterranean record with this blue sky. The air is moist and we're in a warm front, with the depression behind us.

"We haven't had any hairy moments during the round the world as we're always careful to be slightly under the threshold of losing control. Right now we're in a controlling phase: we're making 30 knots while we could be making 35. If something breaks that we haven't been able to see, we don't want it to happen in the last 30 hours. The weather conditions will dictate the time of arrival. It will be night-time, which will enable us to have a little time to ourselves. During the night, we're selfishly going to savour the privileged moment and after that we'll make for the port of Brest! We will enter into the harbour early Wednesday morning.

"We should have 30 knots of wind at the finish. We haven't had any more than that on the round the world apart from once when we were below the Falklands, with a gust of 48 knots, but then it was on flat seas. If we manage to finish this adventure like this, it will qualify as a job well done. I am proud for all the teams who have worked on this project. All those that have worked on it; like the shore crew, the architects, the yard, the developers who have done a superb job.

"If we set off again tomorrow, I am sure we'd be better still as we are better today than we were at the start. We've learnt a lot of things during this round the world! We already know that with the same conditions Steve Fossett had from Brazil, we would finish in 47 or 48 days. Orange II has been designed to be the fastest around the planet for the next five years. There are still a lot of other courses for it, like the one across the North Atlantic of course. "

Around Alone Bernard Stamm, who is among the crew on Orange commented: "It's a superb voyage! It was close to perfection so I wouldn't head out again for just anything. Two months ago, I didn't think I'd be sailing round the world, even less so in 50 days! I didn't realise the average speeds this machine could keep up. Orange II is a machine, it's impressive. Even in big seas, it doesn't stop! At the helm, it's balanced..after that, it depends on whether the seas are crossed and if they're following seas. My best memories are linked with the speed you clock in the surfs. I think my best speed was 39 knots or something! But the goal was never to rack up the biggest score!"