Back in business

Pascal Bidegorry's 40m long Banque Populaire tri prepares for her transatlantic record assault

It has been a relatively slow start to 2009 for the Banque Populaire team and their 40m long monster trimaran.

Over the winter the boat was checked over by the team ready for her first challenge of the year - an attempt on the Route of Discovery record from Cadiz to San Salvador in the Bahamas. However after weeks of waiting - no weather window materialised. Instead the team carried out two more training sessions before spending six days in April delivering the boat back to their base in Lorient on a circuitous route via Madeira and the Azores.

Upon their arrival they checked over the boat and discovered a crack in the bottom of the main hull forward of the front beam where the boat had evidently collided with something. So the Banque Populaire maxi came out of the water once again (no mean feat for this 40 x 23m wide vessel) and she has been back in the shed for a further month and a half having the crack repaired. According to the team's in house designer Antoine Gautier they also took the opportunity carry out further work optimising her weight saving and reliability following their recent training session.

Technical Director, Ronan Lucas explains: "The whole technical team of Banque Populaire has worked hard during May so that our vessel could return to the water as quickly as possible. We tried to save a little weight when we had the opportunity. We also increased the laminate in the hull between bows and the daggerboard in order to minimize the consequences of possible impacts in the future."

The Banque Populaire maxi was relaunched on Monday and the team plan to carry out three days of test sailing out of Lorient next week before setting off for New York on 16 June. Here they will go on stand-by (again) for their attempt on their rival Groupama 3's impossibly fast New York-Lizard record of 4 days 3 hours 57 minutes and 54 seconds (an average of 29.26 knots on the direct course...)

"I am delighted to be able to put the Maxi Banque Populaire V back in the water, especially when I consider all the work done by the Team Banque Populaire," said skipper Pascal Bidegorry. "For me, it's once again very reassuring and satisfying to be surrounded by people so meticulous and focussed. I look forward to being back on board."

The big issue for the west to east transat record will be the weather, which so far failed to co-operate earlier in the year for their first record attempt. Given the time for this passage is so short reasonably accurate forecasting can be done but traditionally mid-summer is not the ideal time to pick up the best west weather system - although saying this Groupama 3 set the present record in July of 2007.

The crew have also been joined by Vendee Globe skipper Yann Eliès, who has now successfully recovered from the broken leg is suffered half into his solo non-stop lap of the planet. Eliès has previously sailed around the world with Bruno Peyron on board the Orange 2 maxi-cat and will be joining two others on board from Peyron's Jules Verne Trophy holding crew, Sébastien Audigane and Florent Chastel.

"I am delighted that Yann is joining us," says Pascal Bidegorry. "We've known each other for a long time having been competitors on the Figaro circuit. We even had the same sponsor for several seasons! Yann is well known, someone of experience and a very talented sailor, but it is also very pleasant to have on board. We share the same respect for the sea and boats."

In the meantime before setting off to New York, Pascal Bidegorry will be sailing on board the Banque Populaire Decision 35 for this weekend's Geneva - Rolle - Geneva race, the warm-up for the Bol d'Or Mirabeau on 13 June.