Trimarans and the Big Apple

Sodebo is the latest maxi-tri to go on stand-by in New York

Thomas Coville's maxi-trimaran Sodebo is now in New York, as are Pascal Bidegorry's Banque Populaire V maxi and Franck Cammas' Groupama 3, awaiting a suitable weather in his case to make an attempt on the solo west to east transatlantic record between Ambrose Light off New York harbour and the Lizard. The present record for the 2980 mile pass is is just 5 days 19 hours 29 minutes and 20 seconds and is held by...err, Coville.

Sodebo arrived in the Big Apple on 26 June after a ten day passage from La Trinite with crew. Now it is a case of her shore-based routers Christian Dumard and Richard Silvani of Météo France to keep a look out for any low pressure system that offers a favorable weather window to break the record. "The North Atlantic in less than six days is not superhuman. It may even fall under five lonely days with good weather, but this requires a system to stay with us and not let go," says Coville. "It's a course that I know well. It is also the record the most fun and most impressive."

On 15 July 2008 Coville became the new record holder for crossing the North Atlantic alone. On this occasion Sodebo covered 2925 miles at an average speed of 20.97 knots on her attempt.

"With the boat we have today, we can do better than last year. In 2008, the last hours, we had been conservative on the weather. We knew we were going to beat it if we do not break the boat. We think we will take more risks this year," explains Coville.

As to the other maxi-tris in New York, will it become a race across the Atlantic this summer? The major difference is that they are going for the outright fully crewed record and this may mean that they won't necessarily leave in the same weather window as Sodebo.