Bruno Peyron interview - part 2
This interview with Bruno Peyron follows on from part one published here
G-Class
A problem with the unlimited G-Class maxi-multihulls is that typically the newest boat is always the fastest - or if it isn’t, its designers should be fired. And the benchmark is now very very high with Pascal Bidegorry's Banque Populaire team alleged to have spent 10 million Euros on their boat. But the irony of this was demonstrated in Groupama’s Jules Verne Trophy attempt – for almost one half of the record, she was behind the pace of the supposedly slower Orange 2.
So this too bodes well for The Race. While the new boats are certainly faster on paper, on the round the world race course, the differences are much less obvious and as Peyron points out the tactics for sailing a nimble, lightweight tri will be very different to sailing a heavier, stronger cat - both types having their day.
“It is a lot of money, but it is still a lot less than the America’s Cup or the Volvo,” points out Peyron. “If you imagine that we succeed with The Race 2 in putting back this concept of a global circuit for the G-Class, then I am not afraid about the return on investment. We know the results from last time – it was pretty impressive. There is no reason that tomorrow it will be less – quite the contrary.”
Looking further ahead, the future type of boat entering events such as The Race could be what the
L’Hydroptere team are planning with their new offshore record breaker, the test bed for which is due for launch in Switzerland early this summer. Peyron is eager for their new offshore foiler-tri to join in with his party. “That is completely the philosophy of The Race. Are they going to be ready? Half ready? Who cares! It is a very very interesting concept. Even if they just make the start and then maybe they want to slow down, at least it is exactly the philosophy of The Race. I hope they will try. I know they would like to, but I don’t know if they will be ready.”
As was the case when Peyron tried to run The Race 2 before, he is still considering a follow-up event with stops, although he wants to see how much of a success the first event is. “If we do The Race 2 as planned, then probably the teams will ask us to make the next step, then we’ll see what happens.
As to whether Peyron will sail in The Race 2, we reckon he will. Last time he handed over the reins of his boat, Club Med, to Volvo Ocean Race winner Grant Dalton, who did a good job propelling her to victory while Peyron was stuck on shore running the event. “This time I would at least like to have the choice,” he says. “So I have put together a team of people who will be able to finish the job on shore so I can recover my freedom to do the racing part and be on the start line.”
And would be like to build a new boat? Of course he would! “I don’t know whether or not it is good to build it for this or the next one. I know that we have a lot of margin to improve on this one. We know the boat very well. We will see what Banque Populaire does next year.”
The 125ft long Ollier-designed catamaran Orange 2, as she was known, Peyron reckons could easily be made 10% faster. “The first year we were sailing very conservatively and never pushing hard, except three or four days trying to catch the front in the South Atlantic [on the Jules Verne], and we did it. Because we didn’t have that much pressure and we were faster, I didn’t want to push. The year after in the Atlantic, we pushed a little bit more, and improved a few sails, not that much because we didn’t have much money and we improved the performance by 10%.”
He reckons there are still 2-2.5 tonnes more that could be shed from the boat. “Maybe half a ton from the mast, the boom is just a joke and the appendages, the daggerboards, etc - there are a lot of improvements we can make. So I think this 10%, according to the architects, is very realistic. If you have 10% more and pushing hard – they could make a big difference.”
So who at present is interested in The Race 2? “A lot more than last time, which I didn’t expect. Last time we had huge interest, but it was more of a dream. My feeling last time was that very few of them were very realistic. This time, everyone has been learning a lot from these past 10 years and all the ideas and projects seem to be very realistic. So I am expecting more countries very soon, and that is the reason why if we succeed, the Race 3 won’t be too far behind, because that will allow these teams to build a very strong program over two or three years.”
in terms of more specifically who is interested, Peyron cites the Banque Populaire team, which has the on-paper race winner at present. Groupama has the equipment too, but is committed to the next two Volvo Ocean Races. With OC pushing the Omani 100ft class and planning the Indian Oceans Five Capes Race that Oman Sail’s Majan is pacing out at present, it is also likely they will be involved. Mark Turner and Peyron had a meeting recently where they contemplated potential rules for the 100ft class. “That will help them also,” says Peyron. “If we don’t do that, it is very simple, the next 100 footer will have a little more foil or canting mast or whatever and they will beat them. The No Limit class is there for that – innovation, freedom, etc. If each time you build a new boat the old one is dead, you miss the point.”
As to the start and finish of The Race 2, this is likely to be in the Mediterranean again – The Race previously started from Barcelona and finished in Marseille. Peyron says his event starting and finishing in different places doesn’t bother him. “I would prefer to ensure we have more than 1 million people sharing the emotion of the start and the arrival."
If this is the case then Peyron has a clever idea of having the start and finish line for the event at Gibraltar. This would allow a grand departure to be made from the start port with a start line, gun, but allowing media and sponsors, etc to be on board the boats for the trip to Gibraltar, where the start would take place the following day. Coming back, the finish line would be at Gibraltar allowing the arrival back at the finish port to be scheduled to some degree – useful for public heading down to greet the winner in, but particularly good for live television.
Peyron also has plans to ramp up The Race 2 beforehand. Prior to The Race in 2001, he took his maxi-cat Explorer on a global tour including the US and the Pacific, and raced her in the Transpac. As a promotional device this time he is intending to look at all the nations that are likely to be fielding boats and arranging for the G-Class fleet, even just one or two of them, to compete in whatever the top event is in that country. In the UK for example he cites the Round the Island Race and the Rolex Fastnet Race. In Sweden the Gotland Rund, etc.
“It is going to be something like The Race Acts over 2011-3 - to choose in any country/market, the [sailing] event which is culturally the number one in that country and to make a deal with them where we are bringing the G Class to compete in this event instead of trying to create events alongside.”
He intends on piggybacking on existing events over this period, the exception will be in France where they would set up their own bespoke event, for the simple reason that it is the home of this kind of boat.
While The Race 2 is excellent news and Peyron's event holds the advantage, compared to the MOD70 at least, of having a number of existing boats ready to take part, one wonders how his event will impact on the Volvo Ocean Race and particularly on the MOD70, for it seems unlikely that the sponsorship market round the world yacht races will be able to support all three.
Latest Comments
cam 26/03/2010 - 12:20
Team Adventure is IN and ramping up for The RACE 2 ! Cheers, CamAdd a comment - Members log in