Bruno Peyron, skipper of the Orange II maxi-catamaran, has announced today that he will be leaving for a new Jules Verne Trophy attempt on Wednesday 18 February.

Commenting on proposed start Peyron said: “The evolution of the weather system we’ve been observing for the last few days is confirmed, and we’ve decided to leave the dock from our Lorient base tomorrow afternoon, to head towards the Jules Verne Trophy starting line – a line we’ll cross between 0400 and 1200 GMT. As we hoped, the nice high-pressure cell is slowly moving north, and will generate 20kt easterly winds. We work with Roger Nilson (onboard navigator) and Roger Badham (our Australia-based meteorologist) on several simulations, and the result lets us foresee a departure on Wednesday morning (18 February). We should have a good speed for the first days at sea, thanks to these easterlies, but those might reach 35kts as soon as the second racing day.

“The first difficulty we’ll encounter will be to manage a low pressure cell located south of the Azores. The risk is that following that depression, the Trades may take some time to rebuild, and we may have to cope with light airs. It’s the reason why our departure time is quite strategic and has been carefully calculated. On the side of the boat, everything has been ready since Saturday evening, and I wish to congratulate the whole team, because the guys have done a great job preparing the boat in such little time. It’s now time to concentrate, since as early as tomorrow, we’ll be at sea, racing… against ourselves!”