Bruno Peyron
Bruno Peyron, organizer of The Race 2000, inventor of the G-Class and former Jules Verne Trophy holder challenges the skippers of the large multihull boats to direct comparison.
"Olivier de Kersauson's Jules Verne record drive showed us how frustrating such a performance can be because you didn't have the same weather conditions as other competitors," said Peyron. For this reason, he challenges all skippers to take part in a race that will be held either from June 1st to August 15th when starting in Northern Europe or from September 1st to September 30th when starting in the Mediterranean region. According to Peyron, the conditions are at least largely the same.
The new idea of the Jules Verne Trophy founder Peyron is of course not entirely neutral. Firstly, he drives the American Steve Fossett against the cart, because he claims that he only achieved his fabulous record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world (58 days and 9 hours with the 125-foot cat "Cheyenne") due to extremely good weather conditions. (Which is actually always a prerequisite for record drives.) But Fossett recently condemned this Jules Verne Trophy to insignificance with his record - which was not created under the auspices of the Jules Verne Society of Peyrons.
Second, Fossett, who announced his retirement from sailing a few weeks ago, can no longer defend himself in competition. Third, with a race like this, Peyron hits Tracy Edwards for a bargain. For her part, with a sponsorship contract worth 55 million euros from the Kingdom of Qatar, the British woman launched a race for the G-Class in January 2005, which Peyron should not taste at all.
His latest idea is indeed a great event, but is based to a not inconsiderable extent on personal-political motives. Anyway, should several skippers / ships get involved in Peyron's plan, it would be a spectacular event. The sailing fans can look forward to it.
