Jules Verne Trophy 2005
Morning press release
Paris, Sunday 13th March 2005 – 11.00 GMT
headING TOWARDS BREST
The series of gybes to enable them to head north to pick up the Atlantic lows will be coming to an end in the next few hours.
At exactly two this morning, the Orange II maxi catamaran gybed once again, heading north. Strangely enough, they twice crossed the path taken by Geronimo on her way back up last year, when she won the Jules Verne Trophy. This crossover enables us to see just how far ahead Bruno Peyron and his crew really are. Quite simply 12 days ahead of the record-holder. The most important thing is however that the long detour via the west around the ridges of high pressure, which ruined Orange II’s week last week, is finally drawing to an end. Situated to the west south west of the Azores this lunchtime, the fastest ocean-racing multihull in the world is now on her home run, and shortly will have less than 1500 miles left to cover. Her ETA is still planned for next Tuesday.
Bruno Peyron, this morning at 10.00: «Everything is going well. We’re continuing to weave in and out in very unstable winds. Half an hour ago, we had 14 knots, before that we had 24 and now it’s climbing back up to 20 knots. Strangely, the forecasts are at a loss about what’s happening here. So we have to do without the computers. We’re using the barometer more to navigate and keeping our eyes raised to observe the clouds. For the moment, we haven’t really taken off, and I don’t know yet whether we’ll go to the north or south of the Island of Florès (the most northerly island in the Azores – editor’s note). There’s no point in going up too far, as there will be too much wind and heavy seas. The vital thing is going to be to try to find the right angle and strength of wind. We will however be ahead of the depression, with near perfect seas. It’s still rather difficult to forecast precisely, so our ETA is still varying between noon on Tuesday 15th and noon on the 16th.»
Data:
Day at sea : 48th
Date : 13/03/2005
Time (GMT) : 10h08
Latitude : 35 44.32' N
Longitude : 38 09.32' W
Instantaneous speed : 20.2 knots
Instantaneous bearing : 346
Average speed : 21.8 knots
Speed over 24h : 14.9 knots
Distance over 24h : 357 nm
Speed since the start : 21.9 knots
Total distance : 25278 nm
Reindexing distance : 1639.40 nm
Lead on day 48:
- J. Verne record : +3503 nm (ahead)
– absolute record : +2803 nm (ahead)
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
The records Orange II has to beat
– The Jules Verne Trophy, held since 29th April 2004, by Olivier de Kersauson and the crew of the trimaran Geronimo, in 63d, 13h 59mn.
– The absolute round the world record held since 5th April 2004, by the American Steve Fossett, in 58d, 09h, 32mn.
Orange II’s latest records
- The world 24 h record (706.2 miles covered at an average of 29.42 knots) - August 2004.
– The Mediterranean record (17h, 56 mins and 13s, at an average of 25.53 knots) - September 2004.
- The Record between Ushant and the Cape of Good Hope (14 days, 8h and 19 mins) - February 2005.
- The Record between the Equator and the Cape of Good Hope (7days, 5h, and 22mins) - February 2005.
- The Record between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin (7 days, 5 hours and 35 minutes) - February 2005.
- The Record between Ushant and Cape Leeuwin (21 days 13 hours and 54 minutes) - February 2005.
- The Record between the Equator and Cape Leeuwin (14 days and 11 hours) - February 2005.
- The Record between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn (10 days 23 hours 35 minutes) – February 2005
- The Record between Tasmania and Cape Horn (8 days 18 hours 06 minutes) – February 2005
- The Record between Cape Horn and the Equator (8 days 5 hours and 36 minutes) in March 2005
The Record Equator-Equator (33 days 16 hours and 9 minutes) – March 2005
About Orange ...
Orange, a subsidiary of France Telecom, is one of the global leaders in mobile telephony. Orange France is the leading operator in mobile telecommunications in France with a market share of 47.7% and more than 21.3 million clients on 31st December 2004.
index partners: Orange, France Telecom
Local authority partners: City of Marseilles, Marseilles Metropolitan Authority
Official supliers: TD Com, International Peinture, Henri Lloyd, UKHO, Lomac, Yamaha, Nera, Valderas Consulting, Telemar Scandinavia, Aramid Rigging, Southern Spars.
Freely available photos (for free press use) : www.maxicatamaran-orange.com (press section)
Video production for the Orange Maxi-Catamaran:
Arnaud de Belinay : +33/(0)6 84 84 14 71 - debelinay@therace.org
Official Photographer: Gilles Martin-Raget : +33/(0)6 07 55 45 85 - gmr@martin-raget.com
Press contacts for France Télécom / Orange :
Sébastien Goalès - France Télécom / 01 44 44 93 93 - sebastien.goales@francetelecom.com
Marie-Cécile Leprat - C Sports Communication / 01 58 47 84 58 – mc.leprat@csports.fr
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