Fresh challenge for Geronimo

Olivier de Kersauson's maxi-trimaran to attempt San Francisco-Yokohama trans-Pacfic record

The record between San Francisco and Yokohama has belonged to Steve Fossett since 1996. He covered the distance between the West Coast of the U.S. and Japan in 19 days 15 hours 18 minutes 09 seconds. The journey is 4,525 miles (8,400km) long and has to be carried out during the first days of spring to avoid deep winter lows.

This campaign is the equivalent of a transatlantic crossing against the prevailing winds and so is much longer.

Geronimo is currently on the quayside in the Driscoll yard, and can be seen from the road that passes by Shelter Island. Six of the CapGemini/Schneider Electric trimaran's French crew are already on board: Yannick Agaësse and Jean Charles Corre, both Polynesian residents, Didier Ragot the loyal second in command and technical boss, Lucas Zamecnik, Xavier Douin, the young structural engineer and Antoine Deru, a wizard with the ropes and a former deep sea fisherman.

Last week they were joined by Larry Rosenfeld, Cam Lewis's associate in Team Adventure and Kazuhiro Nishimura. Larry is in charge of navigation and studying the weather during the forthcoming attempts, and Kazuhira is one of the most successful Japanese professional crewmen. Two other members are due to arrive for the relaunch and to get her out to the starting line under the Golden Gate Bridge in early April. The logistics are still the responsibility of Australian Rob Stirling.



The end of the refit.

The deck fittings have been completely renewed, the rails have been removed and replaced, and there are just a few more special fittings, which have been held up somewhere, but this should not lead to a change in the schedule. North Sails in San Diego have a workshop a few hundred metres from the b oat, and even if they are not used to working on this size of sail, the American workmen are offering some valuable help in strengthening and modifying Geronimo's sails.The keel has been sanded down and a new coat of underwater paint in keeping with the North American anti-pollution standards was applied with a spray gun, after the surface had been rubbed down to get it in the best possible condition. For the return voyage across the Pacific and a campaign in Asia careful preparation is required, as it would certainly not be such an easy task repairing her on the other side of the Pacific.