Early days but Orange II ahead of record

by Orange II Media on 6 Feb 2005 After 12 days of sailing at an average of 21 knots, the giant Orange II has reached the longitude of the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha (around 12° West) and is getting ready to enter the Roaring Forties (Latitude 40° South).

After only 12 days of racing, the maxi-catamaran is today in about the same position as Cheyenne and Geronimo after their fifteenth day at sea. This impressive performance means they have a lead of 1200 miles in this race against the clock around the world.

By dealing perfectly with the St. Helena high and by taking a short cut on their route around the world, Bruno Peyron and his thirteen-man crew have thus managed to get well in front. This does not mean that the maxi catamaran is ready to ease off, and late this morning, she was recorded reaching 32 knots and had clocked up 640 miles over the day.

Data

Day 12 - 05/02/2005 at 10h04 GMT

Latitude: 38 39.84' S

Longitude : 12 49.28' W

Speed over 24 h: 26.7 knots

Distance over 24 h: 640 miles

Speed since the start: 21.3 knots

Total distance: 6121 miles

Remaining distance: 18694.10 miles

Lead on day 12:

J. Verne record: +1241 miles (ahead)

Absolute record: +1260 miles (ahead)

Radio sessions: Every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday at 1.15 p.m. GMT at Orange race headquarters and live on Internet. Wednesday’s broadcast will be a live video link on Internet and on Orange mobile handsets.

Audio: Apart from the radio session three times a week, an audio recording is made every morning at 5.00am with the boat.

These recordings can be heard and downloaded in MP3 format in the press section of the website: www.maxicatamaran-orange.com

For any individual requests, please contact Bénédicte Etienne on 06 87 30 12 83

Boat’s positions:

The position of the boat is updated every quarter of an hour on the website: www.maxicatamaran-orange.com

The records Orange II has to beat:

– The Jules Verne Trophy, held since 29th April 2004, by Olivier de Kersauson and the crew of the trimaran Geronimo, in 63d, 13h 59mn.

– The absolute round the world record held since 5th April 2004, by the American Steve Fossett, in 58d, 09h, 32mn.

Orange II’s most recent records

- The world 24 h record (706.2 miles covered at an average speed of 29.42 knots),

- The Mediterranean Record (17h 56mn and 13s, at an average of 25.53 knots).