Record eater

Banque Populaire navigator Marcel van Triest talks us through their extraordinary journey

A small oddity about the recent west to east transatlantic record attempts is that both boats had foreign (ie non-French) navigators - while US legend Stan Honey took this role on Groupama 3, on board Banque Populaire it was Majorca-based Dutchman, Marcel van Triest.

Having passed the Lizard mid-afternoon on Sunday it wasn’t until 3am yesterday morning that the 40m long blue monster trimaran tied up in Brest.

For van Triest, a veteran of five Whitbreads/Volvo Ocean Races ( Equity & Law, Intrum Justitia, Innovation Kvaerner, SEB and Brasil 1) there were the day to day rigours of surviving on board a vessel capable of travelling at speeds in excess of 40 knots, but his biggest responsibility was making the decision when to go, the machine whirring into action with the sailing team decamping from Brittany to fly out to New York. However his call was good and van Triest says the conditions for their historic record breaking crossing were exceptional.

“We didn’t tack or gybe and we only sailed 40 miles more than the direct course. So that is exceptional. Most North Atlantic record attempts involve a gybe to come down again through the Irish Sea. This was all straight lining.”



Typically the ideal weather scenario for attempts on the west to east transatlantic record is having a well developed Azores high with a depression rolling eastwards across the top of it, the vessel in question riding on the flat water ahead of the fronts associated with this system. That is not rare, but what is less common is finding a depression that ultimately ends up in the UK rather than spinning off northeast towards Iceland or Scotland. When this latter scenario occurs it can leave a final ridge to get through and this for example prevented Bruno Peyron from claiming the record on one occasion on his Orange maxi-catamaran. “The North Atlantic record is complicated by leaving New York and arriving in England,” confirms van Triest. “The bit in the middle is fairly predictable and easy, but the biggest complication is in the end.”

In this case there was a depression ending up in the right place, moving at the right speed to take them all the way to the finish line (barring the very last hours at least) and there were even favourable southwesterlies, the first of the season, to help them get away from New York: Game on…

With Groupama 3’s 2007 record standing at 4 days, 3 hours 57 minutes and 54 seconds, the routing for Banque Populaire before they left was suggesting a crossing time for the 2925 mile passage between New York and the Lizard, of just 3 days 16-18 hours, says van Triest. So their ultimate time of 3 days 15 hours 25 minutes and 48 was a tad faster which he puts down to inaccuracy in the upper extremity of his polars for the 40m maxi-tri. “It was just because we’ve never sailed in those conditions and we didn’t have any data. So it was a guestimate.” In the big conditions ahead of the front he thought they might average 38 knots. Instead they averaged 40…

While van Triest says he initially made the decision over when to leave approximately, once in New York he was helped in the fine tuning of this by meteorologist Chris Bedford, who has recently worked for the Ericsson Racing Team on the Volvo Ocean Race.

The exact timing of their departure was a complex one. The key factor was leaving early enough so they could position themselves ahead of the fronts associated with the depression once they were past Newfoundland. As van Triest puts it: “Basically the later we left the quicker it got until all of a sudden you couldn’t hang on to the front and the whole elapsed time collapsed - leave one hour later, arrive one day later.” In the event 24 hours before leaving they noticed that there would be two squall lines developing over New York on departure day, one in the afternoon and one in the morning. They chose to pass Ambrose Light off New York Harbour, the official start line, ahead of the second at 22.47 GMT on Wednesday night.

The result was an initially fast, but then slow passage up to the Grand Banks, at which point for a few hours they actually fell behind the record pace set by Groupama 3 in 2007. Van Triest says this section would have been faster had they had gone a little further north or had chosen to delay starting a little longer, but this would delayed their ETA ahead of the front, possibly scuppering the attempt. Nonetheless he reckons that by leaving 2 hours 35 minutes after Groupama 3 they were able to take 50 miles out of Cammas' green tri within the first few hours on the way up to Sable Island.

Fortunately the lighter conditions coincided with their arrival at the Grand Banks and here, as usual, they experienced the pea-souper fog, bows and mast head disappearing into the grey, the result of the warm Gulf Stream and cold Labrador Current meeting. Sailing through this at 30+ knots with lots of breeze at the top of their 43m tall mast but very little on the water, was not for the faint of heart, but van Triest says it is no worse than sailing on a pitch black night.

“I’ve been across the Grand Banks with Lawrie Smith in the Intrum days, which was much more exciting, because we had no radar and we KNEW there was ice. This time we had a working radar and I knew there was no ice - it was completely clear, which was a big relief.” Despite a near miss with a fishing marker they passed through unscathed, but there is always the chilling thoughts of what could happen in this waterborne game of Russian roulette. As van Triest says: “At that kind of speed everything comes at you so quickly that you have hardly any time to react. It is a big worry in these boats: if you hit anything it is a disaster. They have very thin foils - any drifting around palette, a big fish or a tree trunk, it is all a big problem.” Going from 40 knots to nothing is the equivalent to a severe car crash.



As predicted they were in situ ahead of the front around Flemish Cape (to the east of Newfoundland), the depression associated with the front at that time getting stronger and stronger. This system took Banque Populaire all the way to the finish line. “The closest the front came to use was about 120 miles and there was a little warm front that over ran it and we ran through it again. With these boats you can match the speed of the weather system, outrun it even, which is pretty interesting.”

It was of course during this time, between 1000 on 31 July and 1000 on 1 August that they demolished the 24 hour record, that previously stood at 796 miles taking it through the 800 mile/day barrier and ultimately ending up at a monstrous 907 miles. In fact van Triest says the highest score they saw logging this every 15 minutes was 908.1 miles but the World Sailing Speed Record Council had installed a black box on board that recorded this data even more regularly, every 300m. “If anything I think it will be a tad more,” reckons van Triest. The WSSRC are currently analysing this data and will confirm the exact figure shortly.

Over this 24 hour period the wind range was 27-37 knots and over the 12 hour period in the middle was a solid 33-35 knots from 130deg TWA, although van Triest points out that this was at the mast head, 43m above them! But of course 130degTWA on a boat sailing at 40+ knot means an apparent wind angle of around 40deg…

For the 24 hour record they mostly sailed under two reefs and trinquette (staysail) although they changed down to the smaller ORC headsail once the wind was solidly into the 35 knot range.

“We have had a lot of sail changes and reefs - solent, trinquette, ORC and two of the three gennikers up. We went through about three or four sail changes a day,” recalls van Triest. “On that boat any sail change is a handful. You need everyone.” The most time consuming is peeling between gennikers. They don’t do conventional peels as van Triest points out that this could result in there being something like 2500sqm of sail set, nor do they do it bareheaded… “That is not really safe, so we go through an exercise – normally we sail with genniker, staysail, main, so hoist the new genniker furled, we furl the staysail, unfurl the jib, furl the old genniker, unfurl the new genniker, furl the jib, unfurl the staysail. It takes about 20-25 minutes in total, but we have a pretty powerful winches system - we have eight guys on the pumps, which you need.”

The reason why they were able to sail so fast was of course due to the phenomenal potential of their VPLP-designed craft, the world’s longest racing trimaran, but also because of the sea which was effectively flat all the way. “The sea state on this record has been really nice, which was due to the breeze filling in on the way up to Newfoundland, then it was a low that developed behind us, so sea state was a non-issue with this record. And that’s exactly what you want on these boats. These boats’ speed potential is amazing, but the big big hand brake is sea state.”

The other potential hand brake is how the crew sail the boat when it is gusty. Fortunately that wasn’t the case where they were sailing on this occasion. “If there are any squally areas, it gets out of hand very quickly,” warns van Triest. “You don’t want to be caught out with your big genniker up and all of a sudden have 20 knots more coming out of a squall.”

On board there were 12 crew, divided into two watches with van Triest and skipper Pascal Bidegorry out of the watch system. The watch leaders were Yvan Ravussin (brother of Swiss ORMA 60 skipper Steve) and former Figaro sailor and Orange 2 crewman, Sebastien Audiagne. Of the 12 crew, seven drove and typically helmsmen swapped at around 45 minute intervals. “They swap helmsmen very often. It is very physical to drive and it is pretty high stress at that speed with the spray and the apparent wind,” says van Triest.

With two watches, the off watch in theory had half the day off, although they remained in their foulweather gear at all times ready to be called up on deck for sail changes. “It moves around a lot. You have to be pretty tired to fall asleep and you need earplugs. It is not the best quality resting time that you have,” says van Triest.

Despite the enormous speed the leeward bow on Banque Populaire is something like 100ft away from the cockpit and van Triest says that on this occasion it wasn’t really wet because the water was so flat. He reckons there was solid water on deck roughly once every 30 minutes or so. Nonetheless the crew would get drenched despite this. “You have this constant mix of apparent wind mixed with spray on that boat the moment you do over 30 knots and it just comes at you at high speed. If you go outside you don’t get drenched by a wave, you get drenched by spray.”

The new generation big tris are not nearly so scary as the ORMA 60s when it comes to the threat of pitchpoling as the mast is considerably further aft on the main hull and they have three extra long bows providing much more volume forwards.

“The hair raising moment for me was when you want to ease something and it doesn’t want to ease and sticks on the winch. I haven’t done the ‘grand soleil’ yet, with three rudders out of the water on a boat like this and I hope I never will, because I have done that on the 60 and it is pretty scary. On these boats - where is the limit? No one really knows. At one stage we put a cap on the speed just because you start doing 44-45 knots and you go well, ‘it is all calculated for 44-45 knots and the working loads at those speeds – what happens if we now lift the centre hull and we put all the load on the foil? Can the foil take that?’ We had a few moments just over 47 knots and the hairy moment is that you are into completely unknown territory, not because the boat feels unsafe - the boat feels fine - but there are some physical limits somewhere. So during the big day, especially the big 12 hours, the idea was to keep the central hull in the water all the time or at least half way and not to rely completely on the foil. That is something which right now the designers will have a look at, with all the data and the loads, and they will learn.”

Had they ignored this van Triest reckons they could have touched 50 knots, but as he puts it: “But then God knows what happens.”

The oddity with sailing these extraordinary giant racing multihulls, as we have mentioned in the past, is that aside from the gale force apparent wind there is no indication, aside from the speedo, of how fast you are going. “You have to look at the dials,” confirms van Triest. “On these boats you only get the impression when you go slowly. When you go 20-25 knots it feels like you are parked! Which is bizarre, because the day after tomorrow I am sailing the TP52 [ Bribon, with the King of Spain] and you are accelerated doing 18 knots downwind. Anything over 30 knots feels normal and at the high speeds it doesn’t feel any different - it is only the instruments that tell you it is different. And those speeds are pretty reliable because it is all GPS speed, because normal speedos don’t work, paddlewheels start cavitating. So we’ve given up and use a fast GPS and that’s what goes into the instruments.”

The crew roles are also different to conventional boats. Typically on big racing multihulls the speed is such that it isn’t possible to react quickly enough to trim on every gust, so it is a case of the crew setting up the rough trim and the helmsman then making the best of it. On Banque Populaire van Triest says that another reason trimming for gusts isn’t possible is simply due to the extreme loads. “The usual set-up is that we have someone on the mainsheet, on the traveller, the jib or genniker - all holding the sheets in their hands - one guy helming and another standing beside the helms calling gusts or grinding. And they all have wireless headsets, because it is just too noisy. So everyone listens to the helmsman.”



Compared to a VO70 there is much much more responsibility, not to mention stress, on the helmsman. “They are really driving on a knife edge all the time. For the crew, there is a high adrenlin level and a high tension level, but it is fairly boring. They sit there with their back towards the front of the boat holding ‘a dog on a leash’ [the sheet] which they have to let go in a hurry if the helmsman calls for it. And then there is just a tedious grind back into the mark afterwards.”

On Banque Populaire the crew are sheltered from the perpetually howling wind and the worst of the water by a substantial coaming on the aft beam, or the forward side of the cockpit. It is only the helmsman who sticks his head above this parapet.

Obviously during the voyage Banque Populaire experienced no major damage or breakage, which comes with considerable relief as she is the world’s largest trimaran and even below 44-45 knots, much of her complex load case is still new territory for her engineers. They did however break small things, including a pin going into a batten car at the end of the 24 hour run, which resulted in them taking the main down for around 15 minutes. They also nearly lost the cover over one of the hydraulic rams in the floats, used for canting the mast. Alarmingly for van Triest in the nav station the inspection window through the bottom of the hull for the prop (removed for this attempt) cracked. “It was made of 1 inch plexiglass and that started leaking into the nav station. It would have been quite interesting if that had broken! And that was when we were doing 40 knots, so the guys put some carbon over that and laminated it all up…”

Perhaps not so apparent to the Anglo-Saxon sailing fraternity is just the high level of technology that has gone into the new maxi-tris. “I am hardly involved in it but every corner you turn you go ‘what is this bit here, what kind of metal is it?’ And it is always ‘well xyz, self lubricating metal,’ some alloy I’ve never heard of. There has been a lot of thought that has gone into it. Outside of the French world we don’t realise that. We think they are all mad! I remember during a delivery once there was a tiny hairline crack on a door somewhere and right away on my computer screen they had AutoCAD drawings everywhere and they were discussing if it was because it made of uni- or bi-directional and how it was laid up, etc. I’ve never had those discussions on a Volvo boat. It tends to be ‘it’s f***ed, mate!’ So it is pretty refined the whole scene, more refined than we think.”

Having sailed not only on numerous Volvo boats but also for a long time as navigator for the rival team Groupama on both the ORMA 60s and on Groupama 3, van Triest is uniquely placed to give comparison of the relative horrendousness of the rides. “It is very jerky and also this boat is pretty brutal compared to Groupama. Having sailed both, Banque Populaire is that little bit stiffer structurally as a platform and she has much more righting moment with the canting rig. And we put much more tension in the sails and the rig. We have hydraulic rams on the luffs of all the gennikers and headsails. Everything is more tensioned up and more loaded and the whole platform just feels stiffer - or maybe I am older! It feels pretty brutal.”

The record attempt would indicate that Banque Populaire is faster that Groupama 3, after all she is 40m long compared to Groupama 3’s 32m. However van Triest says this isn’t always the case - Cammas’ green boat has its day. “The two boats are a very different concept. Groupama is a manageable trimaran that is as light as possible, no canting rig, less systems, no tensioners everywhere. We have rotary hydraulic pumps and all sorts of stuff. We have four coffee grinders and they have two. They sail with 10 guys and that is plenty and we sail with 12 and that is hardly enough. It is a different concept. They are a little bit easier to manage in some conditions, a bit more slippery. We haven’t been side by side so it is hard to say. With these boats if you get 1 knot more wind speed they go three knots quicker. In a VMG soaking mode, I think Groupama 3 will be quicker, sailing deeper angles keeping the same speed. But certainly at 130deg TWA and 30 knots Banque Populaire is quicker.”

In van Triest’s lengthy list of sailing achievements this is definitely one he is most proud of. “It is a good feeling, also because the record will stay for a long time. To get the same weather window, God knows how long you will have to wait before you get it again.”

However he warns it is getting increasingly difficult to break the big relatively short time span records such as this because you have to wait on stand-by for so long. Earlier this year the Banque Populaire team spent several weeks twiddling their thumbs in Cadiz waiting to make an attempt on the Route of Discovery record to San Salvador in the Bahamas. A suitable weather window never materialised and they had to return home. Even in the case of their latest record - their first it should be pointed out - the window in their schedule to do the record was rapidly running out.

One wonders if Banque Populaire’s instantaneous demolition of two of sailing sound barriers, won’t motivate other big teams to look more seriously into these kind of ‘G Class’ maxi-multihulls, because clearly if Banque Populaire has held together given this battering, it would be possible to go bigger and more powerful and faster still…”

As ocean racing veteran Paul Standbridge, crewman on ENZA New Zealand, said to us at the weekend. "We'll see 1,000 miles in a day in our lifetime." Not half as ridiculous as that may have sounded a week ago.

More photos on the following pages...