Orange 2 about to smash the transatlantic record

Go to :

http://www.netandsea.com/maxicatamaran-orange2/

and here for the English commentary page :

http://www.orange-sailing-team.com/en/

There are right now only 5.1 nm from the finish and they are 14 hours ahead of the old record by playstation. Right now they can practically drift across the finish. The old record was 118 hours + something.

During this trip Orange 2 set a new 24 hour record as well 766 nm, 60 nm more then the previous record.

WOW ! Steve has got a new challenge !

Wouter

.

I'm sick of these g classers racing the clock.. stroking their egos while showing the world how fast their expensive toys can go.

Put them head-to-head again. We need The Race part two.

Hey Wouter,

They are in now and have beaten the old record. They could have done even better if not for having rudder damage!

"The damage to the rudder? We lost between 6 and 8 hours with this incident with the rudder, but really it’s not that serious, even if we know we could do better and the boat deserved better. But I’ll say it again, it doesn’t really matter. It gives our friends and enemies a bit of a chance to try and beat us… and it will give us another chance to come back and try again, even if it wasn’t deliberate."

I think this kind of racing is exciting and admirable. It takes incredible resources, desire, organization, planning, skill, and good fortune (the ocean is littered with obstacles). I take the GPS out on the iceboats I sail here on Lake Erie and these giant multihull speeds are as high or higher as we commonly do in the winter on hard water. One wrong move for a crewman and it could be their last as recently proven on the Volvo race. I would love a daysail on one of these machines but I'm happy to watch these trans-oceanic sprints!!

"I'm sick of these g classers racing the clock.. "
Yeah, right. If it was a US boat you would be bragging like hell. Too bad for you, it is French.

I'm a skip and I must agree. Whilst it is good to see some records tumble...... Lets have some G fleet racing. How about some day events close to shore for spectators.

Not sure if that's possible, from what I heard the tacking and gybing operations take a long time to complete (30 min).
At least the spectators would be in the shade though <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Go and take a look at a ORMA 60 tri race !


Wouter

I think Peyron almost killed the class by building this boat that was such a leap forward in speed. He certainly obsoleted everything else out there. I have heard of some big tri's being built lately (Groupama) but I haven't heard of a new G class catamaran since Orange - are there any new ones coming?

Ahh yes, the one thing that the French have going for them... offshore time-trial sailboat racing.

How .... *yawn*.... exciting.

The ONLY reason that this transat was dramatic was because they hit something in the water. Give me a break. Build 5 more Orange 2's and put them head to head across the atlantic, then maybe I'd give two *NOODLE*.

Huhh, just a year since we had just the same topic, and just about the same controversies.. http://www.catsailor.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Test&Number=44156

Instead of building the same heavy boat over and over again the French guys are doing something different, trying the limits and invent new things!!

For me this is great, it is not a Swedish team, but I think it is great anyway. At the last Europeans in Hobie 16 the French teams had something that most other teams lacked, a new generation of good sailors. The team that won the Europeans was a French team by the way.

Orange 2 have done something great and are contributing A LOT to the sailing community. Event none sailors think this is cool.

/hakan

back then I wrote :



And voila ! 1 year and 2 weeks later this has become fact with Orange besting Fossets records.

Not a bad prediction, if I say so myself.

Wouter

well if there are two things that Fossett isn't short of, is money or determination.

I wonder if he's gonna go ahead an build Playstation 3. If he starts now, he could have a boat on the water before the release of console itself!