Heading for the big apple

Francis Joyon to go on standby for solo transat attempt from 10 April

Currently making a stopover for supplies in Saint Martin, the IDEC trimaran will be heading for New York this evening or on Thursday morning at the latest. Skipper Francis Joyon thinks he will arrive on 5 April at the Manhattan Sailing Club, where he will be staying while on stand by. From 10 April, the single-handed yachtsman and his
90ft trimaran will be on the starting blocks ready for an attempt on Laurent Bourgnon's 11 year old singlehanded transatlantic record.

"Everything is fully ready. I had a trip yesterday between the south of Guadeloupe and Saint Martin, and the boat managed 22-24 knots in some fine trade winds. I’m here to finish loading up with supplies and finish off two or three little odd jobs.»" Francis, who admits he can’t wait to get underway, is not expecting very favourable weather for the journey to New York, a short trip, which should take around five days.

"The conditions will be fairly quiet, sailing more or less downwind at the start, and then I’ll be upwind in some stronger winds. It’s not going to be easy sailing, but it should allow me to get there in reasonable time nonetheless." On the positive side, the equipment won’t be put under too much strain during this journey. "After having so many difficulties getting everything ready and the boat set up correctly, I’m going to try to avoid damaging anything, so there won’t be any work to do all over again in New York! Most of my work involved the rigging, deck fittings and sails, but not a lot of work needed to be done on the boat itself."

Joyon as usual has been preparing the trimaran by himself and has once again spent many hours working on her, but on this occasion in the sunshine in Guadeloupe, where the conditions are more clement than those in Brittany mid-winter.

"If you’re working on the hull, it means you spend two hours a day in the water, and you often need to climb up the mast … so in short, that keeps you fit. Besides that, I also did some swimming," says Joyon, whose impatience to leave is clear. However, although the boat is on stand by from 10 April, for the moment, there is no clear obvious weather window on which to leave. But this isn’t stopping the skipper from remaining hopeful: "I can see a series of lows passing over New York, so things could get going quite quickly," says Joyon, who never enjoys having to hang around ashore. He will at least be able to take advantage of the hospitality of North Cove Marina in the Manhattan Sailing Club, where his giant trimaran will take up position under the skyscrapers.

Atlantic record:
- New York-The Lizard route (theoretical distance calculated by the WSSRC): 2925 miles (5,417 km)
- single-handed record: Laurent Bourgnon, Primagaz, 7 days 2 hours 34 minutes 42 seconds (June 1994)
- 24-hour singlehanded record: Laurent Bourgnon, Primagaz, 540 miles (June 1994)

About IDEC:
The Acanthe Ingenierie Group brought together in 1996 the businesses launched by Patrice LaFargue, the founder and current CEO. Set up to offer a complete range of professions and services dedicated to business property construction, it is divided into five branches:
IDEC, civil engineering firm, general construction work, IDEC IBERICA in Spain
PROSDIM, investment company
Pharmadec, engineering firm working in the area of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products
Acanthe Promotion, property developer
ALBAT, Construction management
The ACANTHE INGENIERIE GROUP, based in Blois, had a turnover in 2003 of 60 million Euros. Among their clients are BMW, Nestle, Pomona, McCain, Prologis, Carrefour, La Poste, Aventis.