Groupama 3 - Jules Verne Trophy

The concept of sailing around the word in less than 80 days was fancied, in 1985, by the sailor Yves Le Cornec. On April 20th 1993, Bruno Peyron, skipper, accomplished the first legendary fully crewed round the word in 79 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 56 seconds. He then became the first "Jules Verne Trophy" holder. After twenty three years and thirteen attempts to break the record, only five of them were successful: in 1994, 1997, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

In 2005, Bruno broke once again the record by finishing the round the word in 50 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes and 4 seconds on Orange II. The main objective for Frank and his men this year is to beat this reference time on Groupama 3.

Groupama 3 update
Jules Verne Trophy - Circumnavigation around the three capes

The Indian Ocean is living up to its reputation: unpredictable! Evidence of this comes in the form of a zone of high pressure, slipping along under Africa and a very big low kicking up a nasty swell past the North of 40°... As a result Groupama 3 is having to pick its way through beam seas, which are making the sailing uncomfortable as well as tiring out both the men and the boat.

The paradox of sailing: whilst Groupama 3 has been racking up a fine day's upwind sailing with 620 miles at an average of 26 knots, the giant trimaran is continuing to lose its lead over the reference time set by Orange II! And the haemorrhage is severe: half the 600 miles accumulated two days ago, have been reduced to just 290 miles this Thursday afternoon... Yesterday's `light patch' experienced by the crew, who were anticipating this loss of ground, is nevertheless past and during the viseo-conference this Thursday, Franck Cammas appeared more serene, explaining that the 'scar' was going to close up again in half a day...

"The weather's not very fine and there are shifty winds and messy seas. We have seven metre waves, but they're short and it's difficult to know what sail to hoist as the breeze is changing very quickly, passing from 20 to 28 knots: we'll have to limit the impact as much as we can! In this way the boat goes very fast at times, making over thirty knots, and then comes to a stop sharply: it's not easy to control it... We still have twelve difficult hours ahead of us, then the swell will lengthen before reducing. We are in the process of making easting and the biggest seas should pass in front of us. By Friday, things will be better!"

A mass of swells...

During round the world voyages under sail, in a race or on a record attempt, in solo or crewed configuration, in a monohull or a multihull, the method of sailing has deeply changed. First off, the boats go faster, then because the sailors are more experienced and finally because the weather forecasts are considerably more reliable and safe over longer periods... Gérard Petipas, navigator to Eric Tabarly, recalled during the radio session that: "a compass, a knife and a barometer, that's what we had to predict the weather..." It was the same scenario for Eric Loizeau, skipper of Gauloises II during the crewed round the world race in 1977-78, who only had isobaric charts received via fax... Times have changed with digital files today, which enable not just the forecasting of the strength and direction of the wind over the next five or even seven days, but also the sea state.

"Multihulls brake in the first instance due to the sea state: we can easily reach thirty knots but as soon as you have waves, you have to reduce the sail area to limit the speed and the result is that you end up with more apparent wind. It's this wind, which is dangerous when it varies rapidly, generating impact with the sea and making the boat go from 25 to15 knots in a few seconds... This is all the more impressive on a trimaran, because with its three hulls, there is still one wave, which hits the windward float very hard! And the vibrations of this resound throughout the platform. The blows are pretty impressive..." stated the skipper of Groupama 3.

Now, when a front generating a strong NW'ly breeze is succeeded by a W'ly wind and then a S'ly storm, these three trains of waves form an extremely violent pyramid-shaped chaos, which is above all highly unpredictable. This mass of swells, which have mixed together, create a fearsome undulating disharmony for the structures of multihulls, not to mention the sailors who bathe in the spray they kick up, smashing against the bulkheads down below and vibrating from head to toe! There can be nothing worse than a trimaran seasoned by shaker sauce... Fortunately, multihulls have the ability to accelerate to free themselves of the biggest seas in order to find some more high performance sailing conditions... However, for Franck Cammas and his nine crew, they'll have to wait until the start of the weekend for that!

The weather for the circumnavigation

Sylvain Mondon, from Météo France: "The crew of Groupama 3 will have 24 difficult hours due to the sea state as at midday, they had waves varying between five and seven metres and beam winds. The sea will continue to be messy and laborious, forcing the crew to ease off the pace. The aim for the weekend is to catch a low, which will form to the North of the Kerguelen Islands, to sail with a slightly more favourable wind, which will enable them to make a course to the SE. The seas will level off and allow higher speeds... It will be difficult to slip along to the South of this growing disturbance, given the speeds over these next few hours, but the trimaran will then be able to sail behind it with the NW'ly wind, which will enable them to round the stationary high pressure system to the South of Australia. The problem for Groupama 3, in relation to the other Jules Verne Trophy attempts, is that it will have to cover more ground. In this way it will make three quarters of its course in the Indian Ocean at 40°, so it will lose at least 700 miles in relation to a course along 45° South... To manage to maintain a lead over Orange II will be very difficult over this part of the course! We aren't in an unusual weather configuration since it occurs once or twice a fortnight. However, the disturbance currently passing to the South of Groupama 3 is particularly powerful! What is paradoxical at the moment is that the trimaran will get pushed by a zone of high pressure, whilst normally it is a low..."

Groupama and Franck Cammas: 100% trust!

Loyalty and commitment have characterised the partnership between Franck Cammas and Groupama for the past ten years. Indeed, thanks to the constant, determined support of the mutual benefit insurance company, Franck Cammas has built up an impressive track record. Starting off with Groupama, the first of its name, back in 1998, the adventure continued with Groupama 2 launched in 2004, then with Groupama 3 in 2006. In 10 years, Franck has stood out in all forms of competition, totalling 56 races, 49 in which he gained podium places and 28 victories.

According to Franck Cammas: "We're still managing to drive the boat in a high performance way, even though we've eased off the pace since yesterday evening due to the sea state. I'm very proud of my crew."

References: Jules Verne Trophy

Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds - Average speed: 17.89 knots
Record held by Bruno Peyron, aboard the maxi catamaran Orange II, since March 2005.

All about the circumnavigation
Passage into the Indian Ocean
*Passage at the longitude of Cape Agulhas by Groupama 3: Wednesday 6th February at 1637' UT
*From Ushant to Cape Agulhas: 13 d 08 hr and 47 min (Groupama 3)
*Lead over the reference time established by Orange II in 2005 (14d 08h 18'): 23 hr 30'
*From the equator to Cape Agulhas: 7 d 02 h 22' (Groupama 3)
*Lead over the reference time established by Orange II in 2005 (7d 05h 19'): 2 hr 57'

Today's figures
Start on 24th January at 0750'17'' UT
Arrival before Saturday 15th March 2008 at 00h09'21'' UT

Day 14 at 0800' UT
* Distance covered on the water in 24 hours: 624.3 miles
* Distance covered since the start: 7,458 miles
* Distance to the finish: 17,072 miles
*Average on day 14: 26.01 knots
*Average since the start: 22.19 knots
*Lead in relation to Orange II: 325.1 miles

Reference Time
* Jules Verne Trophy: 50d 16h 20' (Orange II in 2005)
* Ushant to the equator: 6d 6h 24' (Groupama 3 in 2008)
* Equator - Cape Agulhas: 7d 02h 22' (Groupama 3-2008)
* Ushant - Cape Agulhas: 13d 08h 47' (Groupama 3-2008)
* Cape Agulhas - Tasmania: 9d 11h 04' (Orange II in 2005)

The crew on Groupama 3

Franck Cammas / Franck Proffit / Stève Ravussin / Frédéric Le Peutrec / Loic Le Mignon / Sébastien Audigane / Ronan Le Goff / Jan Dekker / Jacques Caraës / Yves Parlier
Onshore weather expert: Sylvain Mondon (Météo France)

Photo: Groupama 3 set off on the Jules Verne Trophy attempt - © Yvan Zedda