First sea trials for Orange

Two weeks over preparations ahead out of La Trinite

Bruno Peyron and his crew went for their first sail aboard the new 124ft Orange maxi-catamaran yesterday as they took the boat from Vannes to their new base at La Trinite-sur-Mer.

During this first outing, no major problems were encountered much to the relief of both skipper and his crew.

"There was no stress, since the conditions were ideal for this first navigation," said Peyron. "The light airs allowed us to try all the sails, and to make a check-list of all the minor details that needed to be taken care of... It's still way too early to notice the main differences with the previous boat, since the objective of this first day at sea was not to search for performance, but to achieve a rigorous observation work, especially concerning the giant's sails inventory.

"It's critical, in order to check the triangulation, and to take a look at the sails' shape, their position on the rig. The good news is that there's no need to send the sails back to the manufacturer, everything works smoothly, we took reefs and it's all going well. We were about 20 persons on board, with the crew, the architects, the mechanic specialists, the sailmakers, the electronics specialists.. This first trial was carried out cheerfully, and it was a great pleasure for me to see the smiles on the faces of this crew, who I met about two years ago in similar circumstances. The manoeuvres went well, calmly, with the sun shining between the clouds. It was magnificent".

Orange's sea trials out of La Trinite will continue for another two weeks, before the crew take her out to sea to train in various sea and wind conditions.

Orange France is a subsidiary of Orange SA, which includes all the Mobile Phone activities of the France Telecom Group. Orange France is the leading mobile phone operator with a market share exceeding 49%, and more than 19.6 millions of customers (30 September 2003 figure).