Sea, Sail & Surf newsJules Verne Trophy
Peyron’s catamaran in an orange world
samedi 27 avril 2002 –
A good day today Saturday 27th April for the maxi-catamaran Orange which, even though she only clocked up 220 miles in the last 24 hours, is on a heading of 358° or almost due north. In other words, she has taken advantage of a slight wind shift from the NE to the E, allowing her to lock onto the direct route. She is about 100 nm to the east of Olivier de Kersauson’s position, the current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy, at the same latitude. "The positive side of the situation is that the wind angle is better now," declared Bruno. "The downside is that we have a slight residual head sea, fairly difficult to negotiate. We’re trying to slow the boat down so that she doesn’t jump from wave to wave. We are still carrying the full main, but we have replaced the Code 0 (or the blade, as they call it on the boat) for the solent to prevent the boat from slamming". And while anything is good for the taking, unfortunately the wind should be strengthening and returning to the NE during the night, which will force the boat to curve her route to the west, once again.
Needless to say that they are all watching the Azores high which will be the passage point to round before heading home to France : "You bet we’re keeping an eye on it" said Bruno. "For the moment it’s a bit too far to the left, but according to the weather models it should be moving, and as it name suggests, centring over the Azores. Which would enable us not to do too much distance and to slide along its western border". That’s got to be good for the morale and the stopwatch.
And if for the moment the objective is to make headway on the direct route without slamming too much, the final phase of the consolidation of the mast ball was finished yesterday by Yves Le Blevec, Vladimir Dzalda Lyndis and Ronan Le Goff. Taking advantage of a lull the men, under the supervision of Yves, laid the final layer, that’s to say the third, a sort of "carbon scarf" around the damaged rotation ball. A real "chef-d’oeuvre" according to Bruno and Gilles.
Quote / unquote...
Gilles Chiorri : "We have to admit that yesterday we ate foie gras and drank the last bottle of wine on board. It does the palate good to rediscover flavours we had almost forgotten !"
Vladimir Dzalda Lyndis : "I would just like to say a big hi ! to Marseilles. Because for me and for many people on board, the real adventure won’t be over until the boat is back there !"
Pierrick Garenne / Mer & Media Agency
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