Bruno Peyron’s big maxi-cat is putting on quite a show. Orange II passed Cape Leeuwin (the southwestern tip of Australia) last night, and tossed a few more records into the bag. Numero Uno: Ushant to Cape Leeuwin. 21 days, 13 hours, 54 minutes (mashing Cheyenne’s old record of 25 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes. Numero Dos: Equator-Cape Leeuwin. 14 days, 11 hours (crushing Geronimo’s old record of 19 days, 17 hours, 27 minutes). Numero Tres: Good Hope to Leeuwin (the unofficial Indian Ocean record). 7 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes (pipping brother Loick’s old record of 7 days, 14, hours, 30 minutes; navigator Roger Nilson was with Loick for that run, so he hasn’t lost anything, just updated his personal best).
Check out the two new videos on the video page. Good shots of ice and hull flying, amidst discussion of routing and minor medical emergencies.
So Orange II is four days and fourteen minutes ahead of Cheyenne’s absolute record, and Peyron keeps mentioning, casually of course, how they actually could be going faster but want to take it easy on the boat. In any case, they’ve averaged 22.8 knots since the start, which is astounding, ridiculous, and very impressive. I’m starting to think that if Orange II keeps this up and makes it to the finish, she’ll throw the whole maxi-multihull world into a deep funk because all the first generation boats will be exposed as being totally overmatched and obsolete…
The Orange Revolution: “Hey, Bruno! This thing is so fast it’s turning a circumnavigation into a shortish voyage. Maybe it’s time to think about a new benchmark. Two laps. No stopping…”
The Earthist Chronicles 