Geronimo prepares for San Francisco-Yokohama run

by Amy Halsted on 12 Apr 2006 The trimaran, Geronimo, decked out in the colors of Capgemini and Schneider Electric will set sail on Wednesday, 12 April 06 from San Francisco to make an attempt at the record to Yokohama in Japan. On a complicated course, Olivier de Kersauson and his 11 crewmen will have to improve on the time of 19 days, 15 hours 18 minutes and 09 seconds set by the American Steve Fossett, the current record holder.

In related news, there are now twelve total crew members aboard the French trimaran.

During the trip from San Diego over the weekend, Olivier de Kersauson tried out a new crewmember. Matt Bryant will now be the second American on board Geronimo alongside Larry Rosenfeld. Matt Bryant is a consultant with North Sails in San Diego where Geronimo's sails were taken to be inspected and repaired.

'Geronimo's sails leave you feeling giddy. When you go sailing, you look for what is best,' says Olivier de Kersauson. The 600 miles to San Francisco finally convinced Olivier de Kersauson of the American's ability. Matt Bryan is not new to multihulls. Since 2002 he has been sailing and preparing Loe Real, a sister ship to the famous trimaran, Lakota, the holder of the record Geronimo is seeking to beat.

Olivier de Kersauson and his navigator—the American Larry Rosenfeld—will have to spend a lot of time at the charts to deal with this extremely tricky route.

With regard to a Wednesday departure, Olivier de Kersauson says, 'There is an acceptable window of opportunity coming up tomorrow, with no other such opportunities forecast in the next 10 days. So, it's time for us to go. It should allow us to cover a great distance rapidly from the start allowing us to get away from the American coast and its light airs. We should be setting out in a strong sou'westerly, which is ideal to make our way out of San Francisco Bay.'

There will then be 4800 miles to cover across the Pacific most of which will be into the wind. 'That's twice the distance across the North Atlantic with a lot of different weather patterns. It's a fairly complicated route with periods of swell and rough seas to contend with,' explained the skipper. 'It's a bit like racing up the freeway in the wrong direction!' Larry Rosenfeld, Geronimo's navigator concluded.

With sails, crew and weather right, so it will be on Wednesday morning between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. local time (15/16 H GMT) that Geronimo will set sail from Hyde Fishing Marina. Under the auspices of the WSSRC (World Speed Sailing Record Council), the maxi trimaran will then have to cross the starting line, which is symbolically underneath the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.

The crew list

Olivier de Kersauson
Didier Ragot
Larry Rosenfeld (USA)
Jean Charles Corre
Lucas Zamecnik
Xavier Douin
Antoine Deru
Philippe Corre
Rodolphe Jacq
Pascal Jagut
Kazuhiro Nishimura (Japan)
Matt Bryant (USA)