Maxi Banque Populaire, delivery to New York with Armel Le Cléac'h to go on standby for solo Trans Atlantic record attempt

From the following article (in French) on the Maxi Banque Populaire website:

http://www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr/Armel-Le-Cleac-h/Convoyage-Maxi-Solo-Banque-Populaire-VII-Une-arrivee-prevue-vendredi-10059.html#suite

the rough bing translate below:

Delivery of Solo Maxi Banque Populaire VII: A Friday arrival

Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - 5:30 pm

 

The Maxi Solo Bank Populaire VII, her skipper Armel Le Cléac ' h and 5 men of the crew, departed from Lorient last Thursday, currently sailing in the Atlantic ocean, in 13 knots of wind at a speed of 13 knots. Cap on New York, they have already travelled more than half of the course and with 1000 miles remaining, they think to achieve the megalopolis Friday in the morning. On 2 June the 'stand-by' period will commence and Armel and his 'router' will carefully look weather conditions in order to better anticipate the North Atlantic crossing record attempt. Time to fly between New York and Cape Lizard: 5 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes and 10 seconds (owned by Francis Joyon on his Trimaran Idec).

After having seized from Francis Joyon two of its "legendary" records, the road of discovery and one of the longest distance covered in 24 hours, Armel le Cléac ' h tackles a myth constructed by sailors entered the legend of offshore sailing, Tabarly, Arthaud, Bourgnon.'This record is an Everest, record the hardest beating after the 'Med' and the discovery. The road is more difficult on the pace very high sea muscled. It's a huge challenge I want to raise. But it will not risk taking, because the aim of the season is the Route du Rhum. If appropriate, we will go to bottom! I go to New York with a lot of curiosity. I'll explore this city, with the boat... It's nice to get there by sea and navigate with a super boat..."

© Yvan Zedda / BPCE

 

Yvan Bourgnon halfway between the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands in the Pacific on his beachcat circumnavigation attempt

Yvan Bourgnon's beachcat circumnavigation is continuing and he is currently located about half way between the Galapagos Islands and the Marquesa Island group.  After a long period stuck in light winds the solo sailor has now moved into an area of more stable breeze and is making good progress.

The tracker is here:

http://en-avant-toute.geovoile.com/tourdumonde/2013/app/flash/?leg=6

Yvan Bourgnon and Vincent Beauvarlet on their circumnavigation on a beach cat attempt

Interesting video (in French) discussing Yvan and Vincent's past experiences and objectives with the circumnavigation on a beach cat attempt.  Includes some video showing the boat under construction. They plan to depart on the 5th of September 2013 from Sables d'Olonne

Tritium Racing, Interview with Ryan Breymaier on the plans to attempt to break the Transpac record

An interview of Ryan Breymaier on the plans of the Tritium crew to attempt to break the multihull record in the upcoming Transpac race. 

From the following article on Sailing Scuttlebutt.

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2013/05/20/video-multihull-attack-on-the-transpac-record/

Yvan Bourgnon, attempts to break Tour de Corse record on a beachcat

Not content with sailing around Cape Horn on a modified beach cat Yvan Bougnon is now attempting to break the Tour de Corse record on a Nacra F20c off the beach racing catamaran.  The current record is held by a TP52 monohull

http://youtu.be/m9stT0tWxIY

Team HYDROS video of hydroptere.ch in action

A video from team HYDROS showing the interesting foiling/planing vestigal hull catamaran Hydroptere.ch in action in their Lake Geneva records programme.

Record chasing season finished for Hydroptere.ch on Lake Geneva

The experimental hydrofoil catamaran Hydroptère.ch has concluded its record-chasing 2012 season. Its results were exceptional, including one of the best times of all times on the Ruban Bleu course despite adverse weather conditions.

l’Hydroptère.ch, the revolutionary hydrofoil catamaran developed by the Hydros design team in Lausanne, concluded its record-chasing campaign at the end of a season packed full of experiences and achievements.

In 2012, l’Hydroptère.ch achieved the best times for all the records on Lake Geneva: hour, kilometer and Ruban Bleu (Bol d’Or course). It also beat the absolute one-hour record on July 19 with an average speed of 25.63 knots. l’Hydroptère.ch also posted the year's best time on the Ruban Bleu course on July 11 in five hours 11 minutes 46 seconds, beating its own record (from 2011) by 22 minutes, although still 18 minutes off the record itself.

'We are proud of these achievements', says Daniel Schmaeh, helmsman of l’Hydroptère.ch. 'Our overall performance has been excellent as we progressed on all fronts: we validated the changes to the boat's structure, progressed as a team, and improved our understanding of how hydrofoils work. On the other hand, the weather conditions proved capricious; there was hardly ever any bise (northern wind) and we feel there is unfinished business as the Ruban Bleu was denied us. We will resume our assault on the record next year; we know it's within our grasp.'

The l’Hydroptère.ch team, comprising Daniel Schmaeh, Jérémie Lagarrigue, Stéphane Dyen, Gaël Ledoux and Guillaume Coyon made no less than nine attempts this season, trying their luck in sometimes adverse conditions. 'These attempts allowed us to strengthen the team, and improve the handling of the boat and our knowledge of Lake Geneva', says Jérémie Lagarrigue, head of the Hydros project. 'We also greatly improved the yacht's performance.'

more of the sailworld article here

Team Vodafone Sailing video from the Coastal Classic 2012

A compilation of video from onboard and chase boats of the ORMA 60 Team Vodafone in the 2012 Coastal Classic.  They went on to reset their own record and reduce their already fast time by about 3 minutes!

Yvan Bourgon, multihull skipper and his adventures

Yvan Bourgnon has had an interesting career in multihull sailing from the ORMA60 Brossard to modified beach cats.  One of his latest efforts was a rounding of Cape Horn West to East on an off the beach catamaran.

Here is a page of videos on his website showing some of his adventures over the years

http://yvan-bourgnon.fr/category/medias/videos/

And his website (in French) google translate works quite well though for non French readers

http://yvan-bourgnon.fr/