The Duel Around The World Begins

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The Duel Around The World Begins
The Duel Around The World Begins

Video: The Duel Around The World Begins

Video: The Duel Around The World Begins
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Two mega trimarans competing for the Jules Verne Trophy

Sailing fans can really look forward to this showdown: The two fastest offshore sailing boats in the world will probably start almost at the same time as the record attempt to conquer the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation. Boris Herrmann flew to Brest yesterday. "At the moment it looks like we have a small but good weather window for a start on Saturday. It will be windy, we are expecting around 30 knots of wind and three to four meters of waves," the Hamburg-based company told YACHT online. A start with seven-mile boots, so to speak, the wind is spaced out from the northwest. "We have to be careful not to overwhelm the boat right from the start, it still has to hold around the world," he warned himself, however, about a prudent start.

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151013IDEC_3JML5673

Also present: Boris Herrmann on "idec Sport"

Right next to "Idec Sport" at the pier in Brest is "Spindrift 2", the 40-meter monster tri of DonBertarelli and Yann Guichard. The lightning-fast black boat is the benchmark for Joyon's team, because the boat is bigger and without question the faster in most conditions. In a conversation with Vincent Lauriot Prévost with YACHT 2012, he put the speed advantage of the former "Banque Populaire" at around 10 to 15 percent. And: with exactly this tri, Loïck Peyron set a new best time around the planet in 2012 with 45 days, 13 hours and 42 minutes.

David versus Goliath

"We know we're the underdog," says Herrmann, "but that's only good for us, the pressure is on 'Spindrift'. They have the faster boat, the bigger, better financed team. Everyone expects them to be faster are." Although the speed advantage is not that easy to assess. Both teams have modified their boats extensively - and, surprisingly, both in the same direction: the mast shortened, the sail area reduced, and radically unnecessary weight eliminated. The mast of "Idec Sport" is six meters shorter, just like "Spindrift 2" the crews have two masts in the warehouse. Boris Herrman explains the idea behind it as follows: "It has been shown that 'Idec Sport' is even faster with the shorter mast in around 20 knots of wind. Aerodynamics play a major role in the speed of the boats." The boat has also become two tons lighter thanks to radical slimming. "Spindrift 2" was calculated in a similar way, as Skipper Yann Guichard explained to the YACHT during a trial run off Lorient.

Brest idec
Brest idec

Boris Herrmann on the ship in Brest this morning

The ace up the sleeve of Boris Herrmanns and his skipper Francis Joyon is the weight savings with the smaller crew: "Idec Sport" starts with only six crew members. This was the only way to reduce the weight of the boat so radically. But that also has consequences for tactics. "Idecs" router Marcel van Triest said in advance that they had to time all maneuvers very cleverly, because the crew was not big enough to do many in a row.

New edition of a duel from 2010

Both boats are ready to go in Brest, the teams are watching the weather window - and yet Boris Herrmann wants anything but a duel with a simultaneous start. "And would it be better if they leave later. If we are fast, below the record time, then they have the pressure, not us." The duel would be a new edition of the competition between the two boats in 2010. At that time they were also ready to go in Brest as "Groupam3" with Franck Cammas and "Banque Populaire V", but "Groupam3" set off earlier. The race was later decided by a break: "Banque Populaire" raced at 37 knots over floating garbage and had to give up due to damage to the sword - even though they were almost 300 miles ahead of Cammas' boat.

A record around the world always involves luck: of the 24 attempts that were started, only nine were finished, all others had to be given up due to damage. Olivier de Kersausson needed the most attempts, who was only able to set his first record on the fifth attempt in 1997.

Here is the history of the records:

1993 Bruno Peyron, "Commodore Explorer" • Catamaran • 79 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, 56 seconds 1994 Peter Blake, "Enza" • Catamaran • 74 d, 22 h, 17 m, 22 s 1997 Olivier de Kersauson, "Sport Elec" • Trimaran • 71 d, 14 h, 22 m, 8 s 2002 Bruno Peyron, "Orange" • Catamaran • 64 d, 8 h, 37 m, 24 s 2004 Olivier de Kersauson, "Geronimo" • Trimaran • 63 d, 14 h, 59 m, 46 p 2004 Steve Fossett, "Cheyenne" • Catamaran • 58 d, 9 h, 32 m, 45 s 2005 Bruno Peyron, "Orange 2" • Catamaran • 50 d, 16 h, 20 m, 4 s 2010 Franck Cammas, "Groupam3" • Trimaran • 48 d, 7 h, 44 m, 52 p 2012 Loïck Peyron, "Banque Populaire V" • Trimaran • 45 d, 13 h, 42 m, 53

What the fans can expect

Record holder Loïck Peyron and the previous owner of "Idec Sport" Franck Cammas expressed themselves optimistically in interviews that "Idec Sport" can beat the record, even clearly: 43 days were both considered feasible if the team is lucky with the weather. During his record run in 2010 in 48 days, Cammas had a lot of bad luck in the Atlantic, both on the way to the Southern Ocean and back to the equator; just because of that they had lost three to four days. Loïck Peyron, too, had a rather slow section at a distance from Australia. And both agree: the modifications to the boat are very promising and Francis Joyon is the right man with the right boat at the right time. So now it's time to keep your fingers crossed for Boris Herrmann.

YACHT-Online will continue to report on the record run

Video from idec about the Jules Verne Trophy

Video from Spindrift for the Jules Verne Trophy

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