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Big Beachcats: Orange II Atlantic Record Attempt to Finally Start
Atlantic record attempt
Friday 30th June 2006
Press release N°9
This time they're off! After studying the latest weather charts during the night and talking it over once more with his weather unit, the skipper of the Orange II maxi-catamaran set off early this morning the long awaited green code alert. The start itself for Orange II on her latest attempt at the North Atlantic crewed record will take place on Sunday, in a time slot somewhere between 12h and 18h GMT. The crew is already flying and should be reaching the giant in Newport during the evening.
Everyone in the plane…en route for Newport !
It was at 8 o'clock this morning that Bruno Peyron and half of the
crew of Orange II boarded a flight going from Paris to New York.
Early this afternoon, the rest of the team followed suit. The aim
is to get to Newport this evening in order to finish off the boat's
preparation. They intend to cast off tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon
to head for the starting line, which is located 150 miles north of
New York, or around ten hours sailing, which explains why the pressure
is on, as far as the schedule is concerned.
A crew trained to go on the attack
At this moment in time, when everyone is thinking about football,
a lot has been said about how the teams that have been chosen are
more or less attacking or defensive. On board Orange II, they will
certainly be going on the attack during this crossing. Bruno Peyron
has indeed chosen a crew most of whom are top level helmsman in order
to give priority to sheer speed, power and fine trajectories. «We've
managed to get together a group, which is fairly efficient. I wanted
to base it more on performance than on a long haul team, so I have
decided to choose more helmsman than riggers. We'll have five top
helmsman on board, some Tornado Olympic experts like Yann
Guichard in particular, but also Pascal Bidégorry (the skipper
of the Banque Populaire trimaran), Bernard Stamm and Jean-Baptiste
La Vaillant. Clément Surtel, who prepared the boat and was
a member of the crew during her last attempt in 2004 will be replacing
Pierre Pennec, who is unavailable. Of course, we shall miss some
of the talented yachtsmen, who were on board for the Jules Verne
Trophy (Lionel Lemonchois, Yann Eliès, Sébastien Audigane,…),
but they will get their chance to show what they can do on board
at some other time.»
12 men chasing after a record
In the end Bruno Peyron has decided to set out with 12 on board in
order to cope with additional manoeuvres arising from any complications
in the weather. The line-up is thus as follows: Bruno Peyron, skipper;
Roger
Nilson, navigator; Bernard Stamm, watch leader, helmsman; Ronan Le
Goff, bowman; Jacques Caraes, trimmer, cameraman; Florent Chastel,
bowman, rigging; Jean-Baptiste Epron, trimmer, photographer; Pascal
Bidegorry, watch leader and helmsman; Yann Guichard, helmsman; Ludovic
Aglaor, watch leader, helmsman; Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, runner;
Clément Surtel, team member.
Good weather in the North Atlantic?
Bruno Peyron: "The weather has been fairly unsettled, but it is now
settling down. In fact, our forecasts from three days ago are in
the process of being confirmed. Our final talks with the weather
unit this morning are rather encouraging, as far as the conditions
we are likely to encounter during the crossing are concerned. 90%
of it looks good, with just around 10% of uncertainty concerning
the finish."
The North Atlantic: the record has only been smashed seven times
in a century
The North Atlantic is today the fastest sailing record in the world.
A legendary record, which began with Charlie Barr setting the first
reference time with the Atlantic schooner back in 1905, and which
has only been improved upon by seven crews in just over a century
of history. In terms of pure speed, this record is clearly the fastest
in the world. «To beat Fossett's time, we will need to maintain
an average speed of almost 26 knots on the direct route right across
the Atlantic. That means that the boat will have to sail continually
at more than 30 knots in order to achieve that average for the voyage.
We're lucky enough to have at our disposal what is probably the fastest
boat on the water today. Our crew has shown that they know how to
sail her very quickly, and we now just require that little bit of
luck with the weather to get the balance just right,» explained
the skipper of Orange II.
History of the North Atlantic record
The first record on this route was set by Charlie Barr, the captain
of the Atlantic schooner. The proud vessel managed to complete the
crossing in 1905 in 12 days and 4 hours, a time that was to remain
the record for 75 years. In 1980, Eric Tabarly and his foiler Paul
Ricard improved on Barr's performance by two days, crossing the Atlantic
at an average speed of 11.93 knots. Following that, the attempts
and improvements came at a steady pace. The record would gradually
be improved upon by the French expert multihull racers: Marc Pajot,
Patrick Morvan, Loïc Caradec, Philippe Poupon and finally Serge
Madec... On board Jet Services V (the future Commodore Explorer),
he was to set a record (6 days, 13 hours and 3 minutes) in 1990 that
was to last 11 years. We had to wait for the right moment and Steve
Fossett's attempt to see the record fall: on 10th October 2001, PlayStation
set the historic record of 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds.
Since then, only Bruno Peyron has made an attempt at the record.
Holder of the single-handed Atlantic record on two occasions, the
skipper of Orange II has not yet managed to improve on this crewed
record. We should add that on his last attempt back in August 2004,
he missed out on the record by a whisker (just 31 minutes).
Reminder: the North Atlantic crewed record
- Route: New York / The Lizard (south western tip of Great Britain)
– Current record: Steve Fossett / giant catamaran PlayStation / 10th October
2001
– Record time to beat: 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 06 seconds
– Average speed during the crossing: 25.78 knots
Bruno Peyron's achievements
The 1st yachtsman to sail around the world in less than 80 days (Jules
Verne Trophy 1993), Bruno Peyron is the only yachtsman to have beaten
this circumnavigation record three times. Founder of The Race (first
race around the world with no limits 2000 / 2001), he is the record
holder of the greatest number of miles covered in a ocean racing
maxi-catamaran (330,000 miles).
Some extracts from his list of successes:
- 3 times record holder of the crewed round the world record (1993,
2002 and 2005)
- Twice record holder of the single-handed Atlantic crossing (1987
and 1992)
- Twice record holder of the crewed transpacific record (1997 & 1998)
- 4 times record holder of the 24 hour record (1982 / 1995 / 2000
/ 2004)
- Record holder for the Mediterranean crossing (2002)
- Twice awarded the Golden Neptune Award (Neptune d'Or) (1987 & 1993)
- 24 ocean records and 37 ocean crossings
- More than 400,000 miles covered around the world's oceans.
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