www.orange.fr
Press Release N° 10
Sunday 22nd August 2004 — 5.30 p.m.
NEW-YORK / CAP LIZARD RECORD
THE GIANT ORANGE II ON THE ATTACK AND WITHIN THE RECORD TIME!
- The maxi-catamaran Orange II skippered by Bruno Peyron is on her second day of the race and is now on the attack, thanks to the wind coming from a very favourable angle.
—The boat is speeding along, reaching a top speed of more than 35 knots, which means she is within the record time.
— The conditions they will face in the coming hours should allow Orange's skipper to make an attempt on the 24 h record.
—During her first day's sailing, Orange II covered 559.10 nautical miles at an average speed of 23.3 knots. At 4 p.m. CET, the boat was holding on to an average of almost 27 knots and over the previous 24 hours had covered 646.6 miles.
— To beat PlayStation's record, Orange II must finish before 12 minutes and 44 seconds past 5 (CET) on the afternoon of Wednesday 25th August or in other words 12 minutes and 44 seconds past 3 GMT that afternoon.
AN IMPRESSIVE SPRINT!
During his radio report at 4 p.m., Orange's skipper seemed pleased, but wasn't really able to say much, because of the stress caused by the boat's speed, which reindexed above 35 knots. Bruno Peyron: « As I am speaking to you, the boat is currently doing 36.1 knots on the speedo, and we're pushing her to the limit. I think we should be able to attempt the 24 hour record in 7 or 8 hours time, if we manage to continue at this pace. The boat is behaving very well, and the winds should reindex fairly steady at between 25 and 30 knots. The difficulty we face trying to attempt to beat the 24 hour record means we have to accelerate a little by getting closer to the wind, but at the same time we can't get too close to the high pressure area, which could jeopardise the next stage for us in the Atlantic. We therefore have to make a compromise between the two and keep the low pressure area behind us for the next part of the journey. The boat is going very fast, and her speed is hardly ever falling off, so her average reindexs high, which is quite impressive!
On board, the atmosphere is excellent, even if we're not joking around, as we don't have time for that. It's a sprint, which is very different from a circumnavigation, and we have to keep an eye out for anything floating around. We crossed the path of three whales yesterday and they didn't hear or see us.... We got a bit of a fright yesterday, when we lost the wind, because we had been going so fast. This trip is a bit complicated and we have to change tack a lot. Our conditions are very different from those they went through for the record, and we're forced to go a lot further and therefore sail even faster, which is far from easy.
However, the boat can do it, so we're going to keep at it until the end. Our best day should be today. We're really concentrating on the strategy, the speed, the adjustments and ensuring the boat is coping well. We'll have time to analyse our achievements once we finish. Until the finishing line has been crossed, we'll be hard at it».
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THE RECORD TO BEAT:
The record time for the Atlantic crossing, held since 10th October 2001 by the American Steve Fossett aboard the giant catamaran PlayStation, is 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds, achieved at an average speed of 25.78 knots. To beat PlayStation's record, Orange II must finish before 12 minutes and 44 seconds after 5 (CET) next Wednesday afternoon (25th August) or in other words, 12 minutes and 44 seconds past 3 that afternoon GMT.
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