Archives: Course

Five years after Bruno Peyron’s historic performance, it was Franck Cammas’ turn to challenge the chronometer on the three oceans with his team. The goal: a circumnavigation in under 50 days. The young skipper had met with setbacks on his first two attempts at the course. From dead calm to sudden sprints, his third try would lead him to victory.

2004: Groupama announced the creation of a gigantic trimaran aimed at beating historic sailing records, and to cap them all, the Jules Verne Trophy⁽¹⁾(1)Le Monde en 48 jours, Luc Le Vaillant, Dominic Bourgeois, Yvan Zedda, Mer&Découverte Editions, 2010..
The schedule targeted by the sponsor was tight – this was the first challenge to be met. Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prevost were set the task of designing the new prototype in a year and a half, and the boat constructor Multiplast – source of most of the Trophy’s winners – had the job of building it.
As of June 2006, Groupama 3 was ready. It was a 31.5-metre-long trimaran, shorter than the maxi catamarans that had been running on the circuit for almost a decade, but also lighter, more reactive, and easier to steer for ten crewmembers, operating on shifts of three on deck.

The Groupama champion, Franck Cammas, was already a whizz at competitive sailing. And even if he had never affronted Cape Horn and knew nothing about the southern seas, he could rely on his crewmembers⁽²⁾(2)Team: Franck Cammas, Fredéric Le Peutrec and Stève Ravussin (shift managers); Lionel Lemonchois, Loïc Le Mignon and Thomas Coville (helmsmen); Ronan Le Goff, Jacques Caraës and Bruno Jeanjean (bowmen) and Stan Honey (navigator). Sylvain Mondon from Météo France for land-based routing. who, between them, had notched up thirteen world tours, four of them already having been on winning Jules Verne Trophy teams: Thomas Coville with Olivier de Kersauson in 1997; Jacques Caraës, Ronan Le Goff and Lionel Lemonchois, with Bruno Peyron in 2002 and 2005.

After a vigorous warm up – the setting of four records in the Atlantic⁽³⁾(3)Discovery Route, May 2007: 7 days, 10 hours, 58 minutes and 53 seconds; Miami-New-York, June 2007: 1 day, 11 hours, 5 minutes and 20 seconds at an average of 27 knots; distance covered in 24 hours, July 2007: 794 miles at an average of 33.08 knots; and Atlantic crossing, July 2007: 4 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes, 54 seconds at an average of 28.65 knots. and another in the Mediterranean⁽⁴⁾(4)Crossing of the Mediterranean, May 2009: 17 hours, 8 minutes, 23 seconds, at an average of 26.4 knots. – Groupama 3’s ten crewmembers set off in pursuit of the Jules Verne Trophy. Twice, they were forced to give up even though Groupama 3 had sped ahead of Orange II and beaten a few intermediary records. On 18 February 2008, the trimaran capsized off New Zealand. On 29 December 2009, a float cracked off South Africa and the damage was impossible to repair at sea.
The disappointment was immense. Cammas’ men knew that they would go out again soon enough, but not without an element of apprehension.
26th of April 2008, Groupama 3 arrives in Lorient,  with its float cracked during a first attempt. ©Yvan Zedda / Groupama Team

Winning wager

The third departure was abrupt. Groupama 3 crossed the Ushant-Point Lizard line on 31 January 2010, at 13 hours, 55 minutes and 53 seconds (GMT). The weather conditions had not been very engaging so far that year. It was necessary to take advantage of an optimal slot – even if far from ideal – to get to the equator in under a week and make the most of a welcome depression off Brazil. It was a wager to try and make this sequence, for there is no certainty in forecasts for periods further than a week away.

©Yvan Zedda / Groupama Team

The first and main uncertainty was removed when the Spanish tip of Cape Finisterre was rounded in less than 24 hours. “We’re sailing with a gennaker and mainsail on a calm sea that allows us to slide along well,” rejoiced Franck Cammas on 1 February. “We’ve managed to clear the delicate passage north of Cape Finisterre where we really couldn’t afford to be late, at the risk of being blocked by an anticyclone: the first barrier is behind us!”
Afterwards, Groupama 3 progressed quickly thanks to the trade winds, then managed to pull through a prolonged halt in the stillness of the Doldrums. The equator was crossed in 5 days, 19 hours and 7 minutes, in other words 3 hours and 44 minutes less than the best time set on this section of the itinerary by… Groupama 3, in November 2009!

Bubbles

Groupama 3 kept up an average of 22 knots since departing from Ushant, and sped along to gain a day’s advance on the holder of the Jules Verne Trophy. The only hitch was that Saint Helena’s High, the main barrier in the south Atlantic, stretched a broad calm zone over a very high latitude. Cammas and his men were forced to skirt the phenomenon by nearing the Brazilian coastline. The trimaran’s speed did not drop – Groupama 3 often reached peaks topping 30 knots – but this detour to the west lengthened its course.

The ten crewmembers attempted to get through on a byway on their ninth day at sea. No luck. Trapped, they would need to wait for a depression from the South American coast – one that that failed to come. Things didn’t improve when Saint Helena’s High dispersed, scattering anticyclone bubbles along the boat’s path. On the twelfth day at sea, the virtual Orange II passed in front of Groupama 3. At 37 degrees South, the winds are always unstable, and the trimaran’s average speed dropped to between 8 and 14 knots.
Groupama 3 finally found wind again off the Tristan da Cunha islands, at the longitude 12°19 West, and suddenly scurried at 35 knots on a flat sea. Destination: the most dreaded ocean on the course.

Stève Ravussin and Thomas Coville. ©Groupama Team

Brake and acceleration

Cammas’ trimaran was only seven and a half hours behind Orange II when the Cape of Good Hope was rounded. Then, on 15 February, after 14 days, 15 hours and 47 minutes at sea, the crew went past Cape Agulhas that marks the entrance into the Indian Ocean.
Waiting for a good northerly air stream, the ten crewmembers were forced to slow down. The drop in speed was typical of this world tour in stops and starts: the wind weakened to under 10 knots (18 km/h) and the boat’s speed fell to 20 knots. Groupama 3 fell into another trap and tried to escape by changing course, again and again.
“The weather systems are taking us on quite a northerly course,” specified Franck Cammas on radio, on 17 February, at 42°South, “but it’s not a bad thing for avoiding the icebergs near the Kerguelen Islands. We haven’t taken the risk of going further south as we might find ourselves with a depression portside, with winds against us, and that’s no good at all! But our choice forces us to keep up high averages to stay in this good system.”
On the seventeenth day of sea, Groupama III lagged behind Orange II by 338 miles (719 km).

©Groupama Team

The wind that the ten crewmembers had been hoping for since entering the Indian Ocean reached Groupama 3 three days later, to the south of the Crozet Islands. The speedometer showed peaks of 35 knots, and an average speed of 30 knots.  The course was finally straight, along 45°South, towards Tasmania, with a west-northwesterly wind of around twenty knots.
The trimaran soon went over the longitude of Cape Leeuwin, and scored, on the night of 22 February, its first benchmark time on this third attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy: Cape Agulhas-Cape Leeuwin, in 6 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes.
Orange II’s challenger now only had a four-hour lag to catch up. The sea was orderly, the wind stable and regular, blowing at 20 knots (37 km/h) from the northwest. Cammas’ crew left the Indian Ocean under a star-studded sky, the Southern Cross overhead.

Neck and neck

The record for crossing the Indian Ocean was beaten on 23 February, in 8 days, 17 hours and 39 minutes. Groupama 3 once again bettered the Jules Verne Trophy reference time “We’re following our progress by comparing ourselves with Orange II. Even if it’s not our direct competitor, we’re looking at its virtual traces,” declared shift manager and helmsman Frédéric Le Peutrec on the daily radio session. “We knew that the leg under Australia would let us make up for our lost time because Bruno Peyron and his crew had to make several jibes with phases of slowdown. But they crossed the Pacific very quickly… It’ll be difficult to keep up the average up to Cape Horn.”

The advance on the performance of Bruno Peyron’s catamaran was still slim: 200 miles (370 km) at the entrance of the world’s largest ocean. It was now necessary to go south to shorten the route to Cape Horn – the reasoning being that latitude degrees file by more quickly closer to the Antarctic where the meridians are closer to one another.

On 25 February, the ten crewmembers hit the midway mark. They were progressing well at 50 degrees South and continuing to swallow up the miles. But on 27 February, a cold front caught up with Groupama 3, forced at that point to gibe twice on its way to the mythical cape.

©Groupama Team

At 55°South, while approaching Horn, the sea turned rough, the cold became sharper. The conditions deteriorated from hour to hour. Facing a chaotic swell and violent squalls, the trimaran hurried north-northeast to dodge a disturbance hurtling along at 45 knots along its course. And also to avoid an ice field. On the twenty-eighth day of sailing, winds at 80 knots (145km/h) rushed into Drake Passage, between the tip of South America and the Antarctic continent – before the wind fell and turned north, three days later, while Groupama 3 was in sighting distance from the Chilean coastline.
Finally rounding Cape Horn on Thursday 4 March at 18 hours and 30 minutes (GMT), Groupama 3 allowed Orange II to maintain its Pacific crossing record of 8 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes by 59 minutes. The trimaran nonetheless kept its advance of 175 miles (324 km) on the giant catamaran’s performance. The race was tight.

©Groupama Team

Laborious Atlantic

It was the first time that Franck Cammas saw Cape Horn while Thomas Coville was celebrating his seventh passage of the celebrated cape. “Even for the most blasé, it’s still a very great moment,” said the helmsman on the radio, on 6 March. “Above all, it’s an important transition, it’s a focal point, all the more because this time we had to wait a long time for it! Now we’re entering a different logic in the course, which becomes a race against the clock: it’s time to really go for it and beat the record.” Coville, like the other Groupama 3 crewmembers, still believed that the Jules Verne Trophy was possible, even if the climb up the Atlantic promised to be laborious.

Groupama 3, entering the Atlantic upwind while Orange II had taken advantage of downwind conditions, traced a very easterly curve, thus lengthening its return journey. As of the thirty-fifth day at sea, the advance on Bruno Peyron’s catamaran was lost. The weather worsened. Groupama 3 continually had to adapt its course and speed to match the brutal and unstable conditions: anticyclone bubbles and opposing wind off Uruguay; storms alternating calmness and violent squalls off Brazil. Cammas’ crew feared that the boat would break apart. “We didn’t expect that this phase of strong wind would be so long! The bad weather with 35-37 knots (64-68 km/h) was only meant to last 4 hours at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. In fact, it lasted four hours longer, rising up to 42 knots (78 km/h) with heavy seas,” reported Loïc Le Mignon on 10 March.

To get to the equator as quickly as possible, Groupama 3 had to avoid nearing the Brazilian coast – at the risk of falling into a calm zone – and had to refrain from going out too far to sea where the northeasterly wind would compromise its progress.
When the Earth’s longest parallel was crossed on 14 March, after 41 days, 21 hours and 9 minutes at sea, Groupama 3 was 405 miles (750 km) behind Orange II, in other words, a little more than a day of sailing. The distance was almost discouraging, but the ten crewmembers hoped to see it melt in the northern hemisphere.

©Groupama Team

Final sprint

Once over the equator, there were only 8 days and 19 hours left for the Groupama 3 men to get to Ushant on time. Bruno Peyron had spent 9 days, 11 hours and 15 minutes on finishing this last stage in 2005.
“Thankfully, Groupama 3 is comfortable with short timeframes,” Franck Cammas said with confidence on 14 March. Thankfully for the skipper, his luck was about to change, along with the wind. The trimaran managed to quickly latch onto the brisk trade winds off Cape Verde. On 16 March, Groupama 3 again hopped ahead of its virtual competitor. The ten crewmembers were ready for the first obstacle: the Azores High and its barrier of weak winds. Sylvain Mondon, the land-based router, also announced a series of low-pressure fronts whose potential should be maximized for rushing to Ushant.

On 17 March, as a southwesterly disturbance flowed, Franck Cammas and his nine crewmembers positioned themselves in front of a cold front. “We’ve latched onto the system that’s on the way right up to Brittany. If we have no technical problems, then we have nothing more to fear on the meteorological front. We’re on the last wind train that’s going right up to the arrival point,” announced Fred Le Peutrec on the daily radio session.
But this last stretch would not be run on rails. Franck Cammas and Stan Honney, the navigator on board, planned a series of gibes to bring the boat to the south of the depression, in order to spare it from too much disturbance. At 1,500 miles (2778 km) from Ushant, the wind became more unstable, switching from southwest to northwest. The crewmembers set in motion a series of maneuvers. The boat, tired by its high-speed world tour, bounced on the waves. But more speed was needed despite the risk of breakage, for a high-pressure ridge was emerging on the trimaran’s coattails.

It was in the middle of the night, on 20 March, that Franck Cammas and his nine crewmembers crossed the arrival line of the Jules Verne Trophy, under the flashes of the Créac’h, Ushant’s monumental lighthouse. They had just finished their world tour via the three capes in 48 days, 7 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds, beating the circumnavigation speed record. Going under the symbolic bar of 50 days, they also notched up the bonus of an absolute record on the last stretch of the course: the north Atlantic, swallowed up in 6 days, 10 hours and 35 minutes.

Beaten by 2 days, 8 hours and 35 minutes, Bruno Peyron, skipper of Orange II in 2005, congratulated all his happy challengers – the crewmembers, the land, technical and weather team, the architects, the sponsor. “All deserve this methodically constructed success. Together, they have written a beautiful new page in the history of the Jules Verne Trophy. I’m proud to have been beaten by the best ocean multihull team today, and I’m looking forward to relaunching our team to ‘recover’ the title.”

Groupama 3 in Brest after 48 days, 7 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds at sea. ©Yvan Zedda / Groupama Team

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The pioneer of the Jules Verne Trophy reasserted his authority over the route via the three capes. With a boat whose every millimeter was regulated, a devoted crew and favorable weather conditions, Bruno Peyron accomplished a virtuoso voyage. It was thus that the skipper from La Baule beat the circumnavigation speed record for the third time in his career and carried off the Trophy with flying colors.

On 24 January, at 11 hours, 3 minutes and 7 seconds, local time, the maxi catamaran Orange II crossed the starting line, an invisible line stretching between Ushant and Lizard Point. 2005 marked the centenary of the death of Jules Verne. Bruno Peyron honored the memory of the father of Phileas Fogg by again rising to the challenge of going around the world in under 80 days.
This time, the stakes were twice as high. It was a matter of taking the Jules Verne Trophy back off Olivier de Kersauson, his eternal rival, but also bettering the absolute round-the-world speed record held by billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett.

Encouragment on the starting line.“Eat indian twice rather than once” is written on the sign, refering to Geronimo and Cheyenne, the two vessels Bruno Peyron has decided to challenge. ©Photo Jean-Baptiste Epron

Debate

In 2002, a debate had been sparked off between the “legalist” founders of the Jules Verne Trophy, with Florence Arthaud and Titouan Lamazou in their front ranks, and the supporters of Fossett. The latter, before embarking on his attempt, had refused to pay the registration fees required by the Trophy’s regulations, as well as to agree to the ban on exterior assistance, also part of these same regulations.
Unregistered, Fossett finally pulled off a brilliant world tour, following the course stipulated by the Trophy’s rules, and without outside help, in 58 days, 9 hours and 32 minutes on board his catamaran Cheyenne. Following this victorious circumnavigation, the American skipper wanted to settle the registration fees and see his record engraved on the plaque of the mythical trophy. The Tour du Monde en 80 Jours association, as guarantor of the race’s rules, hailed his performance but refused to award the trophy to him. It was Olivier de Kersauson, who left later in the season on board the trimaran Geronimo, who inherited the title and added his name, for a second time, to the list of triumphant skippers who had earned the Jules Verne Trophy.
Bruno Peyron, as double record-holder, in 1993 then in 2002, had shown support for Steve Fossett: “I deplore the fact that this new reference time is not acknowledged in the context of the Jules Verne Trophy. It is a shame that the individualism and personal interests of each lead us to situations detrimental to the general interest.”
In his own way, almost three years later, the skipper from La Baule on the Atlantic coast prepared to restore brilliance to the challenge that he perceived as tarnished.

14 + II

© Photo Jacques Vapillon

“Orange II is a priori the fastest in the world,” stated Bruno Peyron before casting off. “It showed its great potential this summer with its 24-hour record and its record for crossing the Mediterranean. It’s up to us to show that it’s the fastest to go around the world today.”
Indeed, the vessel in question was a competition machine, designed for long-distance speed: 36.80 meters long, 18 meters wide, tall streamlined hulls for cutting through waves, and a 45-meter wing mast for 1100m2 in downwind sails.
“Orange II offers a synthesis of everything we’ve learned about big racing boats in the last ten years,” summed up Gilles Ollier, one of the catamaran’s designers⁽⁵⁾(5)Orange II was designed by Gilles Ollier and constructed by the yacht builder Multiplast in Vannes.. “The acquired knowledge could allow us to construct the hull of a 60-meter boat, twice as long as this one, but equipment would have to match up and the crew remain the master of the machine.” The Orange II mainsail weighed 600 kilos, and the stress on the mainsail’s mainsheet was 22 tons. Bruno Peyron knew that his boat was very big, very heavy and heavily sailed. “We always need to stay utterly clear-sighted about the potential for power in our hands,” he said.

For his high-speed world tour, Peyron relied on 13 hardened crewmembers⁽⁶⁾(6)The Orange II crew-members: Bruno Peyron (skipper), Roger Nilson (navigator, doctor), Lionel Lemonchois (shift manager-helmsman), Philippe Péché (shift manager-helmsman), Yann Elies (shift manager-helmsman), Ronan Le Goff (N°1, in charge of deck equipment and rigging), Sébastien Audigane (helmsman, in charge of security), Jacques Caraes (trimmer, in charge of videos), Florent Chastel (N°1, in charge of running rigging), Yves Le Blévec (trimmer, in charge of general organization), Jean-Baptiste Epron (trimmer, in charge of supplies and logistics), Nicolas de Castro (N°1, in charge of composite components), Ludovic Aglaor (helmsman), et Bernard Stamm (helmsman, in charge of mechanics). – racers and Cape Horn sailors, some of whom were already familiar with the trophy course and the boat. While going under the 60-day mark remained hypothetical, the crew knew that it only had enough provisions for 58 days. “Psychologically, it’s good to tell ourselves that we have nothing to eat beyond 58 days,” commented the skipper.

Victory count

The shortest time to the equator – 6 days, 11 hours and 26 minutes from Ushant – would be the only of Olivier de Kersauson’s records to be left untouched. Once this first geographical mark on the course was crossed, Orange II’s fourteen team-members would beat the timers of Geronimo and Cheyenne.
On 5 February, on the thirteenth day of sailing, Saint Helena’s High was already far behind them. “This morning, the gates of the South, of the open sea, opened up with a cortege of huge birds,” broadcasted Jean-Baptiste Epron, the reporter on board. “The colors have turned grey, the sun is now going to turn its back on us for some time. From the tall, proud solent, we’ve moved onto the small gennaker, in other words the ‘g-string’!”

Bruno Peyron reached the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope (20° East) at 18 hours and 22 minutes (GMT) on 7 February, signing two new benchmark times: Ushant-Good Hope in 14 days, 5 hours and 21 minutes⁽⁷⁾(7)2 days, 6 hours and 16 minutes less than Olivier de Kersauson in 2003. and Equator-Good Hope in 7 days, 2 hours and 22 minutes⁽⁸⁾(8)2 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes less than Steve Fossett in 2004.. Orange II scored a four-day advance on the two previous records.

The first iceberg, an estimated fifty meters long and ten meters high, was noticed six miles from the boat on 8 February. At the helm, Bernard Stamm luffed in time to just avoid, by twenty meters, an iceberg that had strayed from growlers bobbing in the wake of icebergs. A watch from the float in the wind was added to the radar watch. Caution was taken when overtaking floating objects. And while the elements seemed to spare the catamaran from too much speed in this minefield, the wind weakened. Under the curious gaze of albatrosses, advantage was taken of the short respite to inspect the rigging that was likely to be rudely tested in the Great South being traversed by Orange II.

©Photo Jean-Baptiste Epron

Things took off again on 12 February. With a small gennaker, staysail and mainsail with one reef, Orange II sped on. The catamaran crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin (115°08 E) at 23 hours and 58 minutes (GMT), in other words after 21 days, 13 hours and 54 minutes by sea from Ushant, at an average of 22.8 knots. The Indian Ocean was swallowed up in 7 days, 8 hours and 33 minutes.
Bruno Peyron then had to slow down on a heavy sea with six- to eight-meter waves to allow a violent front, boding for winds at an average speed of 40 to 45 knots, to go ahead of them.

On 19 February, after 25 days, 21 hours and 33 minutes from Ushant, the skipper from La Baule and his crewmembers went over the Anti-meridian⁽⁹⁾(9)The 180^th meridian, the opposite of the Greenwich Meridian., setting a new reference record. The four-day advance on Cheyenne’s absolute record was maintained. Orange II’s average speed from the start was 23.2 knots.

The fourteen crewmembers went around Cape Horn in the deep of the night of 26 February, at 23 hours and 32 minutes (GMT), thus smashing all intermediary times: Ushant – Cape Horn in 32 days, 13 hours and 29 minutes; Tasmania – Cape Horn in 8 days, 18 hours and 6 minutes; Cape of Good Hope – Cape Horn in 18 days, 8 hours and 8 minutes; Cape Leeuwin – Cape Horn in 10 days, 23 hours and 35 minutes.

At this point, Peyron was ahead of Fossett by 7 days, 2 hours and 47 minutes.

Punishment

©Photo Jean-Baptiste Epron

“Nice welcome,” was Jean-Baptise Epron’s ironic comment about their entrance to the Atlantic. With 50-knot squalls, the crew took in reefs, rolled up the gennaker and lowered the sails. Here, Orange II met the maximum wind that it would have to face on a tour where the weather systems seemed to succeed one another with the aim of smoothly paving the maxi-catamaran’s way.
When, at 40 knots of wind, Orange II passed the pebbles of the Falklands and anchored cargo ships by several hundreds of meters, the skies cleared and the sea flattened.

On 5 March, over the radio, Bruno Peyron however showed himself to be wary: “For three days, every time I open the weather file, I prefer to close it again and try to convince myself that there’s time for everything to change and no reason to stress for nothing. But every new file is worse… So let’s be ready tomorrow to pay for yesterday’s insolence…” Orange II was stuck in a calm zone. The dead calm wore on the men’s nerves. Their cigarette stock was exhausted, and the smokers on board became irritable. “For the crew, after forty days or so at 25 knots, loitering at three knots with peaks of six is difficult to bear,” summed up Epron. To occupy the time and in anticipation of the North Atlantic, the crew made a general inspection of the hull and rigging. Two-thirds of the way through the world tour, fatigue was palpable.

©Photo Jean-Baptiste Epron

On 6 March, the equator was crossed downwind. The northward passage brought a return of rain, grey skies and upwind conditions. Orange II took 40 days, 19 hours and 9 minutes from Ushant to cross the latitude 0°. Two new performances could be added to the list: Cape Horn-Equator in 8 days, 5 hours and 36 minutes and Equator-Equator, rounding the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn), in 33 days, 16 hours and 9 minutes. Enough to put the skipper at ease.
But Peyron, despite being 9 days and 8 hours ahead of Fossett, still feared a bad turn in the weather that would compromise his comfortable exploit. “Clearly, I feel like we need to prepare for a real punishment in this last part of the course,” he confided over the radio waves, “perhaps to pay for this almost too perfect trajectory since the start, this series of dreamlike conditions, these miles chomped up at 30 knots and these almost unreal ten days ahead three-quarters of the way through the voyage.”⁽¹⁰⁾(10)Transcripts of radio sessions, statistics and a detailed course narrative on www.fralo.info

Terminus Ushant!

© Photo Jacques Vapillon

The Azores High raised a barrage that was difficult to get around, but nothing that was impossible for the maxi-catamaran. Orange II found wind again on 12 March, setting it on track for the final stop, Ushant, on the night of 15 March, after 50 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes at sea. Orange II kept up almost one week’s advance on the world record, and 12 days, 21 hours and 39 minutes on the previous holder of the Jules Verne Trophy. Fossett’s record was archived, Kersauson dethroned.

The skipper from Brittany who thus lost his title publicly saluted the performance of his rival and shared his pride: “The fifty-day mark is now close. No other mechanical sport can boast of such progress, with every generation of boats pushing back the limits further. With this Jules Verne Trophy that remains the absolute reference in terms of human and technical commitment, Bruno Peyron has just written, for the third time, a magnificent chapter.”

In 2005 as in 1993, the exploit was unexpected, and the record all the more spectacular. However, for the long-distance sailor, it wasn’t just about glory. “Those who, like us, have the privilege of travelling far and long have mixed feelings as the end approaches,” confided Bruno Peyron the day before his victory. “Of course there’s the desire to arrive, to end the story wonderfully, to be reunited with friends and loved ones. But at the same time, we become aware that we are going to separate and that the magic group that we form will be scattered…”

A new duel between Kersauson and Peyron on the quest for the Trophy. On board the maxi-trimaran Geronimo, the skipper from Brittany and his ten crewmembers vied to steal the title from their rival from La Baule. Their most ferocious opponents were present to challenge them: storms, contrary winds and “boat-breaking” swells. The elements were against him, but Olivier de Kersauson persisted with his obsession with the Jules Verne Trophy.

“We can’t get through there, we can’t get through the swells and wind, it’s the sort of situation where we’ll end up upside down… For four days now we’ve stopped racing, we’ve reached the point of just surviving… If things don’t improve, the only thing we can do is to flee north. And never go round Cape Horn.”
29 March, 32nd day at sea. 51° South, 179° West. A southerly wind blowing at 40 knots (74km/h) at the gates of the Pacific. Sailing with a mast only, Geronimo was bolting at 27 knots. Rough, icy sea, straight from the ice cap, was crashing at 35 knots (64km/h) against the trimaran’s floats.
A good captain doesn’t rant. Over the radio, Kersauson’s words calmly conveyed the drama that was being played out on Geronimo: “At this time of the year, in these seas, we’re not in the North Atlantic where people are around. If we keep going ahead, we’re dead.”

Apache warrior

It took a warrior to see this epic to the end. To bring the men home. Geronimo was the first new-generation maxi-trimaran. The prototype measuring nearly 34 meters was designed to slip along downwind, to maintain its speed when winds were light, and to resist boat-breaking seas. Olivier de Kersauson’s multihull had already gained experience on three attempts at the Jules Verne, including a full tour of the world in 2003. On 25 February 2004, it was caught up in the bitterest battle of its existence.
The record to wipe out, the one set by Bruno Peyron in 2002, was 64 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes and 40 seconds.
On board, eleven sailors⁽¹¹⁾(11)The Geronimo crew: Olivier de Kersauson (skipper), Yves Pouillaude and Didier Ragot (seconds), Pierre Corriveaud, Franck Ferey, Pascal Blouin, Xavier Douin, Antoire Deru, Armand Coursaudon, Philippe Laot, Xavier Briault (crew members). had been in training for two years. Between them, they had notched up 18 circumnavigations.

The signs were not favorable. Setting off a first time on 8 February, Geronimo had made a premature return to Brest on 20 February. Two gennakers had given way. It was impossible to set a new record without this sail, a hybrid of a spinnaker and a genoa, the main “engine” of the boat in the trade winds and in calm zones.
With its sails repaired, Geronimo crossed the starting line again on 25 February 2004, at 23 hours, 17 minutes and 40 seconds GMT.

Archives Rivacom

Hazards

A few hours later, Orange II, Bruno Peyron’s catamaran, set out to beat its own record. “Kersau” was a bit put out. His rival’s multihull was 20 % bigger, and would probably sail faster in equal conditions. “It’s always more fun to have someone on water at the same time as you,” said the skipper from Brittany, resigning himself to the situation. “We’re going to make a nice trip around the world, we’re glad to be going.”
“We’ve been waiting for this for a few years,” added Peyron. “For the duel to take place. It’s one of life’s hazards. We’re going to settle our score on water…”

Another challenger was casting off at the same time as the Apache warrior at the start of February: Cheyenne. Another hazard? This was the name given by billionaire lover of extreme sports Steve Fossett to his giant catamaran (37.90 meter). The American refused to pay the compulsory 30,000 euros for registering his round-the-world speed record attempt via the three capes as required by the Jules Verne Trophy. He was competing unofficially⁽¹²⁾(12)At that time, Steve Fossett considered the membership fee (30,000 euros) payable to the Tour du Monde en 80 Jours association – mandatory for registering an attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy – too high and unjustified. As the association benefitted from no grants for its operation aside from membership contributions, it did not wish to allow an exception or to change a rule that all Jules Verne Trophy challengers had accepted, ever since its inception. but following the same itinerary. He was already up to his 20th day at sea, at 48° South.

24 hours of joy

The first 24 hours of sailing were ideal: 29 knot peaks for Geronimo that widened its gap with its supposedly faster opponent.
The wind system deteriorated as of the second day. The Azores High, positioned very far east, slowed the boat. Kersauson took solace by anticipating the next leg that he was very familiar with: “I’m impatient to go back to the real trade-wind systems to see how we go.”

Before reaching the hoped-for trade winds, Geronimo had to face the Doldrums that were particularly widely spread. This zone of unstable winds around the equator grew day by day and blocked the Atlantic from east to west. There was no hint of fun on the horizon. All the more as on the sixth day of sailing, the crew learned that Orange II’s fifteen-member crew had given up, as a result of damage. The duel with the record-holder would be continuing virtually, without the spice of a real race.

Detour

Didier Ragot and Xavier Douin. Archives Rivacom

Geronimo crossed the equator on 4 March, 7 days, 22 hours and 23 minutes after its departure, exactly matching Orange’s time in 2002. Flushed out of the calmness of the Intertropical Convergence Zone⁽¹³⁾(13)Intertropical Convergence Zone of Doldrums. where it had been trapped, the maxi-trimaran reestablished a daily average surpassing 20 knots. “We’re not losing time but we need to gain some!” commented Olivier de Kersauson.

A new obstacle in the Atlantic gymkhana lurked: Saint Helena’s High, very far to the south, stretching from Argentina to Africa, that the crew approached slowly, sluglike. The Geronimo crew had to broadly skirt this calm zone by the west, reaching the forties in the south, before finally turning off due east, towards the Cape of Good Hope. A 50-degree diversion compared with the ideal route, thankfully compensated by fine surfing conditions at over 25 knots, with up to 608 miles covered over 24 hours.
At 42° south, on the 17th day at sea, Geronimo zigzagged through a narrow corridor, between an anticyclone in the north and ice in the south. The longitude of the Cape of Good Hope was crossed on the night of 14 March, one day ahead of the record⁽¹⁴⁾(14)17 days, 22 hours and 58 minutes of sailing between Ushant and the Cape of Good Hope, compared with the 18 days, 18 hours and 40 minutes recorded by Orange in 2002..

Russian roulette

Facing northwesterly winds, Geronimo had to bend its route towards the Prince Edward and Crozet Islands, directly heading towards the Kerguelen Islands. “I would have preferred heading there 7 to 8 degrees further away,” regretted the skipper from Brittany over the radio on 15 March. “But we’ll live with it, we have a good radar. I hope that the fog will lift a bit.” As of their entry in the Indian Ocean, at an average of 18 knots, the crew was plunged in mist. “Fog is romantic, but after five or six hours, it begins to be a pain.” The thick layer finally evaporated on 17 March after three days of sailing with instruments, eyes fixed on the radar to check on signs of invisible icebergs⁽¹⁵⁾(15)The radar allows detection of iceberg masses, but not of the blocks of ice that detach from them. Due to one of these blocks of ice ripping off the float of his trimaran Charal, Olivier de Kersauson had been forced to abandon his first attempt at the circumnavigation record in 1993.. The air temperatures plummeted to below zero. Speed, fog and cold exhausted the men. “It’s so terrifying when we know that the ice is just nearby, when we have the feeling that we’re playing Russian roulette,” was the way that Kersauson summed it up. “This stress is becoming really hard to bear.”
Geronimo persevered. The advance on Orange’s record reached 800 miles.

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The Indian Ocean, so dreaded by the skipper from Brittany, offered a few hours of respite and a little gliding for the crew. Geronimo swallowed up the miles, hurrying to Australia. But to catch up with a more advantageous weather system, the trimaran tried to gain speed from the wind that had been pushing it along since Africa…And landed in dead calm on 23 March. Between the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties, the team crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin two days and 20 hours ahead of the holder of the Jules Verne Trophy⁽¹⁶⁾(16)Ushant-Cape Leeuwin in 26 days, 11 hours and 33 minutes compared with 29 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes for Orange in 2002.… With wind at a measly nine knots.

Survival

The depression that crew wanted to overtake ended up helping out the multihull as soon as it entered the Pacific. Geronimo’s average speed no longer went under 20 knots. The crew, worn out by three days of struggle in the light wind, suddenly rediscovered speed and icy wind. Kersauson was wary: “We’re between dead calm and storms, with wind jumping from 30 to 12 knots. We’re between two depressions, with a tropical cyclone above.”
Storms met the skipper and his men at 53° South and 158 ° East. Pursued by 50 knots of wind on a heavy, rocky sea, the eleven on board Geronimo hoped to find more favorable conditions for speed. Destination northeast.
On a radio message given on 29 March, Kersauson didn’t hide his doubts about the Jules Verne Trophy: “The sea isn’t very high: waves are seven meters high, but they’re incredibly powerful. The other night we surfed along barepoled, at 27 knots, it was like a killing game. What we did there had nothing to do with the competition, it was athletic survival. (…) It’s really tough. I don’t know where we’ll end up with this. But we haven’t been racing for four days. For four days now, it’s been extreme sailing…”
On 1 April, Kersauson glimpsed an opportunity to get back in the saddle: a westerly flow at 55° South. On 2 April, to deliver his daily message, the skipper lay down in his oilskin at the bottom of the boat: “Right now, we have 58 knots of wind according to the anemometer, we’ve got three reefs and the storm sail is up. In my eight world tours, I’ve never seen such a south. In fact, if I’d already seen one like it, I’d never have come back!”

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Backwards

On 6 April, veering close to 59° South, Geronimo waited for the right moment to round the Horn. The conditions for going around the cape were more appropriate for a boat sailing from the opposite direction. 20 knots of wind swung slowly from the east to the south. The crew waited for the depression that would cast it outside the Pacific and into the Atlantic.
On 7 April, Geronimo finally rounded the mythical cape, at 17 hours 45 minutes, after 41 days, 16 hours and 27 minutes – in other words, a result that bettered that of the Jules Verne titleholder by 10 hours… But that was 48 hours more than the new champion.
Cheyenne arrived at Ushant on 5 April, after 58 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes and 45 seconds of sailing. It was official: even if he hadn’t won the Jules Verne⁽¹⁷⁾(17)While Cheyenne was climbing back up the Atlantic, fairly sure that it would beat the Jules Verne Trophy record, Steve Fossett’s land team had contacted the Tour du Monde en 80 Jours association. It wished, a posteriori, to register the American skipper’s attempt in the Trophy and offered to pay the fees that Fossett had considered inappropriate when he had left Brest. The association declined the offer and refused the registration. The very simple rules of the Jules Verne Trophy demand that a challenger sign up at least three months before an anticipated departure.
Fossett could no longer make any claims on the title as he had refused to comply with the rules defining the conditions for winning it. Following the vision of its founders and its successive defenders, the Jules Verne Trophy had to remain the object of a harshly fought competition and not be a reward handed over for a successful circumnavigation.
, Steve Fossett now held the absolute speed record for circumnavigation, without stops and with a crew.

Close-hauled without a solent

The route now led due north, west of the Falklands. Kersauson’s crew was impatient to return to Brest and to leave the hostile seas of this world tour. After a month of violence, the eleven on the Geronimo, dazed, were forced to tack to go back up the Atlantic by the shortest route. The solent jib that ensured a minimum of speed when sailing close-hauled with little wind, died for a second time.
Followed by an anticyclone, on the 49th day, with a staysail and a full mainsail, Geronimo finally latched onto some weak trade winds. Olivier de Kersauson kept up his advance on Bruno Peyron’s performance, but failing a miraculous break in the weather, he knew that Steve Fossett would keep his absolute record.

Haggard

Wind was back on day 52. A few hours of slipping along at an average of 20 knots in the trade winds reminded the crew of how, on this trip, moments of grace were rare… and all too brief.
Geronimo soon slowed at the entrance of a very broad and mobile Doldrums zone.
The equator was crossed on 20 April, after 54 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes at sea: a little less than a day behind Orange in 2002⁽¹⁸⁾(18)Ushant-Equator (return) in 53 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes..
“They’ve got blank expressions, I don’t know if it’s fatigue, sadness or weariness,” confided Kersauson on 21 April even though his crew managed to reacquaint their trimaran with the northern hemisphere trade winds.
The boat made up its lag behind the record-holder the next day, but still, it was flagging. The front left outrigger was suffering from partial delamination – damage that was impossible to fix at sea.

Deliverance

The route home was no cinch for Kersauson’s men. To hope to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy, they had to cross an anticyclone, sail close-hauled, and cross the arrival line on the British side after a long detour to the south of Ireland. A feat never seen, with a solent and an outrigger in shreds.

Geronimo went over the finishing line after being at sea for 63 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes and 46 seconds, at 15 hours 17 minutes, French time. The record had been beaten – just: by half a day.
The first homage paid by the new holder of the Jules Verne Trophy was to his vessel. “When we see the blows we took, we know the boat is good, it gives us back to us the love we show it, it didn’t betray us, it has talent, I can’t explain how it held on! Once we went over the finishing line, I saw the men kiss it. Never again will we venture to the Pacific during winter. And I’m adamant.”

Geronimo would not go on the Jules Verne circuit again. On 29 April 2004, the ever-feisty Viscount de Kersauson signed his ninth and last attempt at the Trophy⁽¹⁹⁾(19)Between 1993 and 2004, only five records were set by three different navigators out of a total of 18 attempts.: “Finally, it’s done, I feel like a guy who’s been hanging by his balls for a month and who’s just been taken off the hook.”

Archives Rivacom

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!

The various attempts to break the record and to carry off the Jules Verne Trophy represent just as many ocean adventures that deserve to be told here.

 
Severe damage or overly long delays have often brought the momentums of Captains Courageous to standstills. Other skippers have succeeded in finishing their world tours… But not quickly enough to beat the established record.
 
These performances – the stories of men, women and their boats – will be recounted in these pages.
 
Come back soon!