Orange underway

Bruno Peyron and his crew set sail on New York to Lizard record attempt

Bruno Peyron announced this morning that he would be starting his attempt on the New York-Lizard record attempt at around 1100 GMT, and so it was at 11h 00 mins and 06 secs precisely that Orange II set sail from New York on her latest attempt at the outright crewed Atlantic record.

12 crew are on board to tackle this legendary record, held since October 2001 by the American skipper Steve Fossett on board his maxi-catamaran PlayStation.

Peyron said before the start that there would be no hesitation in pushing his machine to the limit. This precedent was set in the first few minutes of racing, as the 38m long cat sailed along the south of Long Island at an average speed of 32 knots.

The weather conditions are as forecast with a 25 to 28 knot north westerly, in these conditions Orange II is sailing under mainsail with one reef, medium gennaker and staysail.

To break the Atlantic record, Peyron and his men will have to finish within 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 06 seconds. They will therefore have to cross the finishing line off The Lizard at the southwestern tip of England before Friday 7 July at 04h, 28mins and 12 secs GMT.

Fossett's transatlantic record is one of the hardest to beat. Peyron is well aware of this: Orange II previously made an attempt this record back in August 2004 and missed out on breaking by just 31 minutes. It is not hard to see why for Bruno Peyron, who has already held this record twice as a solo yachtsman, this new attempt at the Atlantic represents the ultimate trophy that has been missing from his list of major records.

In order to cope with additional manoeuvres arising from any complications in the weather, the skipper of Orange II has decided to enlarge his crew and on this occasion is sailing with 12 divided into two watches of six.

The line-up is thus as follows: Bruno Peyron, skipper; Roger Nilson, navigator; Bernard Stamm, watch leader, helmsman; Ronan Le Goff, bowman; Jacques Caraes, trimmer, cameraman; Florent Chastel, bowman, rigging; Ludovic Aglaor, watch leader, helmsman; Jean-Baptiste Epron, trimmer, photographer; Pascal Bidegorry, watch leader and helmsman; Yann Guichard, helmsman; Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, runner; Clément Surtel, team member.