Jules Verne Trophy 2005 - Bruno Peyron/Orange II www.maxicatamaran-orange.com - zur Übersicht 11.03.2005 www.orange.fr Press Release N° 43 Paris, Friday 11th March 2005 JULES VERNE TROPHY 2005 Orange II nearing the Azores Final morning in the sun before the home run to Ushant ETA between the evening of 15th and the morning of 16th March Orange II has been stepping up the gybes since this morning to finish rounding the high, which has been blocking her path back towards Ushant for the past few days. She overcame the first hurdle during the night by crossing through a ridge of high pressure, and is now heading towards the north and a waypoint that Roger Nilson and Bruno Peyron fixed themselves near the Azores. Once they have reached this virtual point on the charts, the giant catamaran will then be able to head for Ushant, and they hope to cover more than 600 miles on the first two days of next week. The ETA for the tip of Brittany is still planned for between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, or in other words after 50 or 51 days at sea. Bruno Peyron during the radio link-up with race HQ in Paris this afternoon: «We're starting to pick up some wind. The second high is a little to our right, and the wind has veered from the east to the south east and then the south. We'll be gybing again towards the north in a few hours time to cross the third ridge of high pressure. Then it should be a straight run back to Ushant. We're at the latitude of the Bahamas, so the temperature is tropical. Yesterday, we had some huge seas, and we were getting nowhere just being tossed around. Today is the first day for four days that we've gone above 20 knots. Below 25-27 knots, you don't really feel like you're going very fast. This morning may well have been the last in shorts, and tomorrow things are going to start to look very different. There's a gale forecast, but the low isn't going to be that strong, as can be seen on the charts. There's going to be a south westerly flow that will push us along towards Ushant. We may finish late on the fifteenth, or during the night of the fifteenth, or maybe early on the sixteenth. You can see that the low pressure is running up against the coast of Europe, and will be sliding up towards the British Isles, which explains why the weather will be spring-like in Brittany at that point in time. Once we reach the latitude of Fayal in the Azores, things will start moving quickly and we'll be on a straight line with winds between 20 and 35 knots. We're expecting two and a half days at more than 650 miles, but we're not going to be pushing the boat too hard, for the reasons we have already explained many times. We're going to try to finish as quickly as possible, in the best condition possible, in some fine light.» Florent Chastel, former crewman in the Défi Français in the America's Cup, bowman on board Orange II: «It was Philippe Mourniac, who sent me an e-mail to tell me about the association between Le Défi and the Chinese team, but I don't know as much about it, as you do back on dry land. I don't know whether the sporting team or the technical crew will be continuing, but in any case, it's part of my plans for the future, and if it does take off, all well and good. During this round the world voyage, we were caught up in a whirlwind and everything fell neatly into place. During the calm periods, we were able to stand back and take a quiet look at the fact that everything was going so quickly. On the one hand, we're really in a hurry to finish, and get back with our friends to have a party, to go for a walk, and get some privacy. But on the other hand, it's a great adventure, and we'd like to take advantage of the final moments as much as possible.» Data Day 46 Latitude : 25 02.36' N Longitude : 42 44.12' W Speed over 24 h : 11.5 knots Distance over 24 h : 275 nm Speed since the start : 22.1 knots Total distance : 24424 nm Reindexing distance : 2253.70 nm Lead on day 46 : - J. Verne Record : +3356 nm (ahead) - Absolute record : +2604 nm (ahead) Website: http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com Hanging a Right In Two Days Time On Monday 7 March, Bruno Peyron warned : we’re going to stall for at least 4 days. Unfortunately he was right. Since that date the maxi catamaran has had its wings clipped. Light winds from an unfavourable direction are braking its progress, the last two 24 hour stretches producing just 100 mile days of distance made good. The performance on these days reindexs nonetheless high in these high pressure conditions, as they negotiate a nasty little chop running towards them, since the boat is actual making a daily average along the ground of 270 miles. After having been up to over 10 days ahead of the outright record, their lead has now shrunk back to 8, but the whole crew would have given their right arm for such a scenario what is now 46 days ago. With part of the anticyclone still to round today and tomorrow, followed by the hunt for the trajectory of a depression to the North of it to make good speed to the finish, Bruno Peyron retains the same ETA. The 14-strong crew should cross the finish line between midday Tuesday 15 and the evening of Wednesday 16, prior to making for Brest, Orange II’s first stopover port. Bruno Peyron, at 0400 GMT this morning : "We know exactly what’s happening. We know that we’re in the right place, there is no impatience aboard. We’re all still trying to make the most of it as there’s not going to be any more of this for a very long time after all. We’re not even at the latitude of the Canaries so the temperature is ideal. The wind is coming from the East and will continue to clock round towards the South. We’re beginning to get to the left of the anticyclone and we’re following the lift. You have to go easy so as not to hit its centre. Our VMG will reindex poor for another day and a half. Another anticyclone is forming above us at the moment. This is totally normal, the system is moving back into place after the big depression disrupted everything and pushed it all deep into the South. Above that, there is air from a depression, with even a strong SW’ly air flow forecast. As a result we reindex with the same ETA. We are sailing with the code 0 this morning which replaced the solent. As soon as there is a little more pressure, we’ll be able to hoist the large gennaker and gybe onto a really N’ly course. In a little less than two days, we’ll really be able to branch off towards the finish". References : Day at sea : 46th Date : 11/03/2005 Time (GMT) : 04h18 Latitude : 23 50.52' N Longitude : 43 07.68' W Instantaneous speed : 10.2 kts Instantaneous heading : 4 degrees Average speed : 10.2 kts Speed over 24 hr : 11.5 kts Distance over 24 hr : 276 nm Speed since the start : 22.2 kts Outright distance : 24347 nm Distance reindexing : 2321.90 nm Website: http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com Radio sessions: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1.15 p.m. GMT at Orange race headquarters and live on Internet. Wednesday’s broadcast will be a live video link on Internet and on Orange mobile handsets. Orange Race headquarters: Fédération Française de Voile 17, rue Henri Bocquillon 75015 PARIS (Métro Boucicaut) Audio: Apart from the radio session three times a week, an audio recording is made every morning at 5 a.m. with the boat. These recordings can be heard and downloaded in MP3 format in the press section of the website: www.maxicatamaran-orange.com For any individual requests, please contact Bénédicte Etienne on 06 87 30 12 83 Boat’s positions: The position of the boat is updated every quarter of an hour on the website: www.maxicatamaran-orange.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE