Kings of the Pacific

Olivier de Kersauson and Geronimo add west to east trans-Pacific record to their collection

At 00h43 GMT Geronimo, Olivier de Kersauson's maxi-trimaran, flying the colours of Capgemini and Schneider Electric crossed the finishing line for the west to east trans-Pacific record. After setting out from Yokohama in Japan on 29 May, de Kersauson and his crew of eight took 13 days 22 hours 38 minutes and 28 secs to complete the 4,482 mile voyage, beating the former record held by Bruno Peyron by 18 hours and 44 minutes. Having smashing Steve Fossett's record from east to west the Capgemini/Schneider Electric team now holds all the significant records in the Pacific arena.

Geronimo set sail with a window of opportunity that skipper de Kersauson described as acceptable. Once away from the Japanese coast, the Capgemini/Schneider Electric trimaran began a crossing that would prove tough on the nerves.

A tricky scenario on 2 June, after having notched up 1,600 miles out of the 4,450 total, de Kersauson could take nothing for granted, as far as the weather all the way to San Francisco was concerned: "The crew are busy carrying out sail changes one after the other, and we're dragging our feet in a wind that is almost directly aft in misty and thundery weather. The other low-pressure area that is following on behind is finding it difficult to catch us up. It doesn't seem to be moving fast enough, but it could strengthen the one that we're currently in, if it wanted to. Geronimo deserves better than these average speeds. We're on direct course, but that's about all I can say."

By 6 June, Geronimo had covered two thirds of the voyage and was making quiet headway, pushed along by the same shallow area of low pressure. "We're sailing on a small front that isn't very active. Normally, a low moves more quickly than that. Ahead of us lies an area of flat calm. Everything is moving slowly, so that means we are too," reported her skipper.

However on 7 June with 1,000 miles left to go to reach San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, the weather looked like defying the forecasts, offering one more hurdle for the final stretch: A huge high pressure area had appeared stretching along the Californian American coast. Olivier de Kersauson talked about 400 miles of calm with 150 being particularly tricky. It took under the night of 10 June to get out of it, after 48 hours of average speeds that they could hardly bring themselves to admit to.

Finally they picked up some wind and could make the finishing line. Never again!

It was with a huge unstoppable laugh that Olivier de Kersauson finished his radio report just before crossing the line, when he was asked what he would do if someone smashed his record. "I think I'd get sick. They can do it if they want. Not me ever again. I can put up with difficult times, but I never want to go through that again."

De Kersauson summed up his 13 days at sea. "You can't control the conditions. The weather forecasts are given every six hours and in six hours everything can change dramatically in this area. So you have to do what you can with the situation. You can't plan ahead. That sounds quite nice, getting carried along by things is part of the attraction of our job. However for our nerves, it's quite stressful, especially when the weather is all over th e place. In 30 years of sailing, I think we have a good idea of what it is like out on the water in many regions of the world. I'd say that here we have an idea, but it's not exactly clear! Of all our campaigns, this has to be the most inauspicious.

"Carrying out projects in regions where few yachtsmen have been is a project that came from our partners Capgemini and Schneider Electric, who wanted to put in place global campaigns. It's interesting and up until now all the records have been just great. But the coast of Japan I can do without. You can understand why the country remained cut off from the rest of the world for so long. The weather is incomprehensible. On board we kept thinking of the heavy three-masters stuck in this torment. It must have been an unbearable puzzle."

The crew:
Olivier de Kersauson, Didier Ragot, Jean Charles Corre, Lucas Zamecnik, Xavier Douin, Antoine Deru, Philippe Laot, Matt Bryant, Christopher Links