Geronimo to set sail tonight

Fremantle boat repair field centre finish off their laminating

The major repairs required by Geronimo, Olivier de Kersauson's Capgemini/Schneider Electric sponsored trimaran will soon be finished. The boat will be back in the race in just a few hours from now.

“It's surreal," says the maxi-trimaran's skipper. "Thanks to our project director Louis Noël Viviès and the team he has brought together, we have saved a colossal amount of time and managed to come up with an amazing repair. Everything was ready for us and standing by to start work before the boat was even on her mooring”.

De Kersauson sounds tired, as if the stopover in Australia has been part of the race, rather than a break in it. In fact, the pressure of time has probably been heavier than ever. “At the same time, it's much better for us to get going than to stay here in Fremantle - if it weren't, then perhaps we should being looking for a new job. This crew has worked very hard to take part in the Oryx Quest, so what happened to us is absolutely mortifying at a personal level”.

Once the inner and outer skins have been resealed, all that remains is the process of curing the laminates. This is no easy task with the boat in the water, even when you have a fully-equipped boat repair centre/field hospital. The process requires an even temperature over the entire area. Luckily the weather in Fremantle is dry and warm (30°C). “If we can get the temperature up to 80°C consistently, then it will take five hours; if we only manage 60°C, it'll take 13 hours. Everything depends on getting this curing process right and the length of time that takes”.

Local weather conditions will not allow Geronimo to leave port during daylight hours. It was 0700GMT when Olivier de Kersauson had this conversation with his shore base in Brest. “There's 35 knots of wind in the harbour, which will drop at about 8 tonight. If the curing process runs quickly, we'll set sail at dusk, but if it turns out to be slow, we can still wait until morning and slip our moorings before the thermal wind returns”.

When asked about rejoining the race, Olivier de Kersauson sketched out three possible scenarios. “Either the weather system we get will be worse than the rest of the fleet is getting - the nearest of which is 1,500 miles away and the furthest 3000 miles - and therefore we'll fall further behind. Or the overall weather situation is much the same and we can catch up by a few hundred miles. Or - and this is my favourite scenario - we get better weather and can make a real attack on the third boat”.

The crew has now completed a full check-up of the trimaran. “Once we get back to sea, we'll probably be the best maintained boat in the fleet”. On the other hand, one crewmember will have no choice but to leave at this point. Antoine Deru broke a kneecap during a manoeuvre at sea. “He's had some excellent medical care ashore. If he stays on board, he'll probably have a lot of ongoing problems, but if he stays here, he'll be fine in a few weeks. Didier Ragot will take over his watch, which will, of course, change the distribution of roles on board. We'll now have two five-man watches, with me outside the watch system”.