The Race

So you wanted a yacht race? Geronimo and Orange, tri v cat take on the Jules Verne Trophy race course

For those who have been complaining that these round the world records, where a boat races a 'ghost' in the form of someone's previous record, then Bruno Peyron and Olivier de Kersauson have kindly thrown just the kind of required competition. It's round the world and of particular interest is that it is cat versus trimaran.

Peyron and the crew of Orange II set off around nine hours after de Kersauson and Geronimo. Both are sailing in 25-30 knots north northwesterlies and interestingly their first 24 hour runs show Geronimo having made 495 miles to Orange's 494.

At the position report last night Geronimo seemed to be much further offshore which is odd as the forecast show that the giant area of high pressure currently to their west heading southeast. It is possible she was at the extremity of a gybe to the west. Conversely Orange looks set to hug the coast and skirt round this potential area of light wind tomorrow.

”A little bit slacker than forecast - sluggish even”, complained Olivier de Kersauson last night adding: “If there’s a knot extra wind, the boat makes an extra knot. There’s a direct relationship between the speed of the boat and the speed of the wind. We have a fairly weak wind - it’s not very active. Not weak enough to shift direction and not strong enough to get us going really quickly”

The crew on Geronimo is gradually getting back into their racing routine, and the temperature has already risen by three degrees. “Casting off at night is always tiring, with all those manoeuvres in the dark and the hard work involved in getting to the line at the right time in the right trim”. As last-minute replacement for Rodolphe Jacq, Xavier Douin has the task of integrating into the crew on the watch led by Didier Ragot.