Banque Populaire V-Jules Verne Record Attempt- 11/21/11

The lead is slipping though, they were nearly 2200 in front at one point, now 1283 and headed for a bit of a whole in the wind by the looks . Maybe they can let rip again once around the Cape Horn !

 

Bp V Jv

from Scuttlebutt tonight:

* (December 18, 2011; Day 26 - 23:45:00 UTC) - Loick Peyron (FRA) and his
team on the 131-foot maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V are dealing with
light winds and extra miles to avoid icebergs, which has reduced their
margin to 936.6 nm over the non-stop circumnavigation Jules Verne Trophy
record of 48 days 7 hours 44 minutes 52 seconds set by Franck Cammas on the
103-foot Groupama 3 in 2010. They now have 8955 nm to the finish. --
http://tinyurl.com/BP-121111

 

Bp V Jv

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

'TIS THE SEASON TO GIVE, GIVE, GIVE(December 19, 2011; Day 27 - 23:00:00 UTC) -
Maybe it's the holiday spirit.
You know, 'tis the season to give, give, give. And lately for Loick Peyron
(FRA) and his team on the 131-foot maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V, they
have been doing a lot of giving.

Their mission to lower the non-stop circumnavigation Jules Verne Trophy
record of 48 days 7 hours 44 minutes 52 seconds set by Franck Cammas on the
103-foot Groupama 3 in 2010 had been going so well. They had built a lead
of 2300nm, but Peyron's team has now seen their margin drop to 917 nm.

To bleed 1400 miles in 10 days, when sailing on what may be the fastest
ocean multihull, there has to be a good reason. Helmsman/trimmer Brian
Thompson describes their situation, now 1700 nm from Cape Horn:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We are still sailing upwind in the Southern Ocean - has nobody mentioned,
that the brochure clearly stated that this part of the world cruise, was
supposed to be a downwind sleigh ride!

There is 25 to 30 knots of wind now, and a 'bumpy' seastate. The boat is
crashing over the waves at 22 knots. We have just changed from one reef and
staysail, to two reefs and staysail, as the vespertine light faded for our
short night.

Late this afternoon we passed about 4 miles to leeward of one iceberg, and
saw ten growlers, between 5 and 1m high. The iceberg we saw from 12 miles
out on the radar, (before we saw it visually), but the growlers did not
show up at all well on radar.

Fortunately the water temp is 8 or 9C, so the growlers should not get too
far from the mother berg before melting. It's night now, so a careful
lookout for us. -- http://tinyurl.com/BP-121911

Tracking: http://tinyurl.com/BP-JV-Tracking-2011-12

 

Bp V Jv

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

THE RECORD BREAKING GAME

(December 21, 2011; Day 29 - 23:00:00 UTC) - If it was easy, anybody could
do it. That's the reality facing Loick Peyron (FRA) and his team on the
131-foot maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V in their quest to lower the
non-stop circumnavigation Jules Verne Trophy record (48 days 7 hours 44
minutes 52 seconds). They are still ahead of the record, though their lead
has shrunk now to 593.7 nm. Helmsman/trimmer Brian Thompson describes their
situation as they struggle eastward in the south Pacific toward Cape Horn:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When we were storming across the Indian Ocean 10 days ago, 2000 miles ahead
of the record, we had dreamed of being at Cape Horn today, but the large
detour around the ice zone, and then this roadblock of a ridge have
shattered that pleasant dream...

So back in reality, for the last 2 days we have been downwind sailing,
trying to find a way through this ridge that is moving east slowly. In the
middle of it there is no wind, we have so nearly gotten through it several
times, but the wind dies on us, the ridge moves on, and we are still left
on the west side, the door slammed in our face.

Fortunately this ridge of no wind will finally start to migrate north
tomorrow (Thursday), with westerly winds coming in below it. So we have
sailed far south, into the 'screaming' 60s latitudes, to be ready to go
through when the door finally lets us past.

You have to be an optimist in this record breaking game, so there is always
some good news. Today's good news is that there is currently no wind at the
Horn or going up the S. Atlantic, so we are not missing out on a fantastic
ride north. In fact, we are looking quite fortunate that a low is going to
hold off forming, till our delayed arrival, and then it should help us up
to 40S in the Atlantic.

So we have lost loads of miles on Groupama 3 lately, though we hope to be
still ahead at Cape Horn... now 900 nm ahead. -- Read on:
http://tinyurl.com/BP-122111

Tracking: http://tinyurl.com/BP-JV-Tracking-2011-12

 

Cape Horn for xmas ?
Wouldn't that make a great tale ! LOL

 

Translation of audio on Banque Populaire website by "Laurent" on SA's Ocean Racing forum.


First Loick:

"
The sea state is pretty violen already right here, so obviously, it was going to be worse closer to Cape Horn, because the seabed rises very suddenly; there is about 4,000 meters depth at 100 miles from Cap Horn, and at the Cape Horn, there is only 200 m depth, or even less, 150 m near a small island called Diego Ramirez.

I would have loved to sail close to Cape Horn, visit this whole area for our young grantees...
But that's the way it is... They are all very happy to be Cape Horners. So now, they are peeing against the wind like young dogs against a lamp post!!! (French traditional sailor saying: you are allowed to pee against the wind once you are a Cape Horner... :blink: Don't ask me where this saying is coming from; I don't know...) Because they are allowed now, right?....

It is a completely stupid tradition by the way... I don't see the point of peeing on yourself... because you passed the Cape Horn!

The guys were telling me; I let them "attack" a bit more than one week or 10 days ago... Really. We are only one day ahead now, so we have to attack a bit more. Right now, we have the string (smallest gennaker), the staysail and a small main at three reefs. 3 reefs, because a short while ago, we had 40 knots of wind... Most likely, we are going to shake a reef soon.
With this sail plan, we are going fast, we have to be very careful, because we are above 30 knots average speed.

Apparently, from here to the equator, it does not look bad; as was Marcel (Van Triest; the on land navigator) saying.

It is still very cold down here; right now, we have a rain squall coming directly from Antartica arriving upon us; it's really cold rain. We were 62 South yesterday; we did it on purpose, so all crew members could write down "62 degrees South" on their tally book!! One good thing done! (on another post, one of the crew explained that they no longer have a real night at this latitude...)

From here to the equator, it looks pretty good; most likely, we should do better for Horn-to-Equator than Franck and his crew two years ago. And maybe even better than the absolute record Horn-to-Equator, currently held by my big brother, Bruno!

So we are going to continue to "attack", the wind is going to slow down all day long local time, then it is going to pick up again in the beginning of the night, just on the North West of a small low pressure system centered more or less on the South Georgia Island. We have been talking about this island for several days, by now!!

Then once we jibe, that's true, we will finally head North, everything will warm up and we will be able to remove some of the many layers of clothing!
"


And now the short audio from Kevin (Escoffier).

BTW, you can find both audios here:
http://www.voile.ban...6623.html#suite

"
In the life of a sailor, it is a very important milestone; the Cape Horn is legendary!!
But really, I think that we will fully appreciate it once we are at Brest and we have beaten the record!! (no superstition of claiming victory before the finish line, apparently!!)
As Loick was saying, we still have rough conditions right now, and we are still focused on the near future and trying to increase our lead.
So we did not have really the time to appreciate it so far. We will appreciate it even more so once we beat the record at Brest; that's what we are wishing for.

Florent Chastel, who has passed the Cape Horn 4 times, and who is very fond of knives, was honing his knife this morning and asking us to lay our ear on the main sheet winch so we could get our ear pierced!!! So we were hiding 'coz he was a bit scary this morning!! We are going to wait a bit... Even if he passed his first aid certificate just before the start, we are still going to wait a bit!!!

The advantage of the very quiet second half of the Pacific Ocean is that we have been able to rest really well. We also checked everything on the boat. So now we are all ready and charged up to attack the North route across the South Atlantic and then North Atlantic.
"

 

Video showing Banque Populaire V from the Lagoon catamaran as it goes past!

http://cdn.streamlike.com/js/uc3/everywhere.php?med_id=52d7b899c9573065&width=431&height=244&swfskin=8&colorskin=361&plugin=5

 

I still cannot see why the Lagoon should be motor sailing downwind in the trades?? I think I see water coming out of the exhaust

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Best of luck guys, great read by the way folks , thanks for the link

 

Corley, best video ! Awesome, big cat standing still BP approaching looks like a Vulcan Predator uncloaked !
RR

 

At the end of the clip I noted that BPV displacement is ONLY 23 tons and the Lagoon is 12 tons.

The ability to build such a huge boat that weighs less than twice as much as an "ordinary" 41' open water boat, while still tough enough to take the pounding of 40 knot wind driven heavy seas while making 30 knots headway is just awesome.

 

Pascal Bidegorry was a very important part (and a lot of kudos should go to him) working with designers BPLP, in the setting up this exceptional trimaran - which is always fast in all conditions .... and he was dumped as skipper!
Imagine BPV shadowing the Sydney Hobart and going through the maxis like she did passing the BPLP cruising cat ... might convert a few minds, eh?

 

G'morn 'pakeha'. Happy festive season to you Gary. When the 'big red machine' from K1W1 was over here in OZ it just blew-away - Wild Oates 11 but not much (read as - as little as possible) was ever shown on TV or heard on radio - & yes I did go looking & looking. Seems they have a problem with us, but that's OK as we know what's going to be the result. Wild Oats 11 has the race record of just over 1 1/2 days so BPV has the potential to get that down to under 24 hrs. Ain't ever going to happen though. That's OK though.

I'm sure we wish each & every person that sailing - whatever they sail - all the best we would want for ourselves.

As in my other 'post' this morning - from my heart - all the very best to each & everyone of you, your 'cheese&kisses' & your family & friends. That's a wish for the whole year to come & many more.

Good health & much good will to everyone. Ciao, james

 

Well the Sydney-Hobart is on it's way ---
and as expected the "Motor Boat" (Wild Oats X1) is in the lead.

 

Maybe charging the batteries or making hot water do do the dishes?