Putting something back

We speak to Bruno Peyron about his latest initiative with Orange and how he will sail his 125ft cat singlehanded

Bruno Peyron entered a new phase in his sailing career this week with the news that his French telecom giant sponsor are to continue their backing of not only his 125ft Jules Verne Trophy-winning maxi-catamaran, Orange II, but also Steve and Yvan Ravussin's trimaran Orange Project for the forthcoming seasons.

But the new five year deal Peyron has signed with Orange is much more than mere boat branding. While the company are in the process of rebranding, converting many France Telecom subsiduaries to the Orange brand, Peyron says that their involvement with yachting this time is for more philanthropic, 'putting something back into the sport' reasons.

Principally the raison d'etre of their backing is not simply to fund Peyron's future multihull racing ambitions, but to give young and talented or just plain talented sailors the opportunity to turn their hand to new disciplines - although mainly offshore one would imagine - within our diverse sport.

"20 years ago I was shocked that the new guys like us never get some help from the old guys," Peyron explains. "So I think it is our duty to optimise this side of our sport. The good news is Orange is sharing very much this concept and spirit and as soon as we set up the concept and philosophy then we just have to take the right decision at the right time. At the moment we are lucky enough to have the fastest sailing machine in the world - Orange II with a strong story between Orange I, Orange II and The Race and so on."

How his new scheme will work exactly Peyron will decide after looking at the options over the course of the next year. It is still to be decided for example whether he will put a lot of people through this program over a short period of time or whether he will take a smaller 'elite' group under his wing or what combination of these two he might try. He already started unofficially while in Poland this year with Ravussin on their trimaran in the Nokia Oops Cup. Their visit coincided with the Optimist Europeans and all the teams got to have a go on a 60ft trimaran. "The kids were doing tactics," says Peyron. Quite an opportunity.

However his concept is not just to give children the experience. His feeling at the moment is that his initiative could go in two main directions. "One is to try to help get some very talented guys from say the Olympic teams to gain experience in another part of the sport to what they are used. Xavier Rohart, the Olympic medalist for example has incredible talent and there are several of those people. The second direction is to try to build a program where we could help detect new young talent."

And this needn't only take place in France. Orange also has a substantial presence in the UK, Spain, Poland and Switzerland (in decreasing order of importance) and Peyron envisages getting sailors into his program from these countries too.

"Today there is no fixed decision taken, because I would prefer to study deeply what would be the best direction to go," continues Peyron. "Obviously we can’t do everything because we have limited budget and it is dictatated by our partners. But our duty is to try and make the best of it and the first step is this 60 footer. In terms of helping new talent to emerge, this is not only young unknown talent. Steve has already proved that he is very good, but he has never been in a good environment, because he has been fighting [to get sponsorship] like I did 20 years ago all the time, all the time. So for the first time we created for him a very professional and safe environment this summer. And we won!"



Since setting the Jules Verne Trophy record in March, Peyron's principle sailing has been in the Nokia Oops Cup with Roger Nilson on board Ravussin's (above) Team Stena Svocomfort...a trimaran. We say this with mock horror as Peyron since his days with Jaz back in the early 1980s has been an ardent maxi-catamaran sailor with a string of these boats including Ericsson/Liberte (originally Philippe Jeantot's Credit Agricole) and Commodore Explorer (originally Serge Madec's Jet Services V), before of course Orange 1 and his current steed Orange II.

"It is nicer to sail in light conditions, no doubt about it," says of going three hulled on a boat less than half the size of his maxi-cat. "It is like a little toy. The genniker - I can almost hoist it by myself! When Steve and I did the doublehanded race, I don’t know how many time we hoisted and lowered the genniker. They are easy to manoeuvre, and they are very fast machines. They are fantastic boats. They are the fastest machine in 0-20 knots. There is no surprise about that. Then above 25 knots it is another kind of machine [ie maxi-catamarans]."

He is equally impressed with the Nokia Oops Cup trimaran circuit organised by Atlant around the Baltic. "It was fantastic - I loved it, not only because of the tri, but the place is fantastic. We had an average wind speed of 8-15 knots, flat seas, good competition and a good team on board with Steve. We worked very well. And my job is only to sail, which was very new for me! We put the project together with Roger [Nilson], but Roger was more in charge of the management of the project, so it was quite relaxing for me. Just pushing hard and sailing - I can tell you it is a nice job compared to what I am used to doing over the last 15 years..."

Part of this week's announcement was the news that there is to be a new Orange III boat, the question remains as to whether it will be a new 60ft trimaran or an Open 60 monohull. Part of his quandry at present says Peyron is over the future of the ORMA class.



"I don’t want to commit on this yet," he says. "The Transat Jacques Vabre and the Route du Rhum - there is nothing to say about them, they are both good. But whether or not the tri has to be at the Grand Prix or somewhere else is another question. Of course, there is no guarantee that there are any grand prix next year. It is not good to commit to grand prix which may not exist…"

At present the ORMA has no title sponsor and recent seasons have seen campaign costs soaring. "There is a crisis within the class. The good news is that there is a new president in the ORMA, so maybe he’ll make some moves in the right direction. It doesn’t need slight change, it needs a real revolution, but I don’t know if they are ready to accept that. So I prefer to be prudent and my first duty towards my partners is to be their adviser before I am their skipper. I don’t want to take the risk for them to get back to me in two years saying ‘hey, you didn’t warn us about this’. If we go for a tri next year with Orange III, it will be for a good reason. For my pleasure I am more culturally speaking attracted to multihulls, but my pleasure has nothing to do with this."

In terms of Peyron's personal sailing program with Orange II, an attempt on Steve Fossett's outright transatlantic record is on the cards for next year. The boat is booked into her makers at Chantier Multiplast in Vannes for a refit over the winter. Breaking this record will be exceedingly tough even in the world's fastest offshore sailing boat.

More ambitious still is his idea to make an attempt on Francis Joyon's singlehanded 24 hour record. This will involve Peyron sailing his 125ft long catamaran on his own.

To do this Peyron says he'll sail out into the north Atlantic and find a suitable 600 or so mile long runway of ocean and the correct weather situation. "The game is very simple, because this type of boat gets to its fastest with one or two reefs and staysail, even with crew. It is just a matter to get the right wind range which has to be between 30 and 35 knots and a good angle - 110-120 degrees. I want to find these conditions and have a bit of safety margin so if something happens I can bear away, drop everything down and say ‘ok, I’m sorry. I am not ready’. I would prefer to anticipate any kind of problems, and I am okay to push hard if I know I can back off.

"Intellectually speaking it is very interesting. It is a very intellectual game to be in the right conditions with the right level of confidence and safety and pushing hard. If I don't do it, I’m sure somebody one day will do it. I have been lucky enough to break 600 miles with Club Med and Grant [Dalton] and 700 last summer. I am sure someone will reach 600 on their own one day."

At present the plan is to make this attempt from his base in Lorient rather than trying in the Gulf Stream. Peyron says he has already taken Orange II out singlehanded on a couple of occasions to train, but this was only in light conditions. Before he makes the attempt he wants to see how he gets on on his own in 30-35 knots. "Of course the game is to know whether or not this monster, underpowered would be fast enough to break the record. We shall see..."