The Orange II maxi-catamaran, skippered by Bruno Peyron(pictured), left her Atlantic base in Lorient (Le Défi technical base) yesterday afternoon and is heading for New York with her sights set on the North Atlantic record (crewed).

Orange II should be in New York around 8 August , and immediately switch on the stand-by mode in order to seize the best weather window possible.

The current record is held by Steve Fossett (USA) with a time of 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds. This benchmark time was established aboard the PlayStation maxi-catamaran at a dazzling 25.78 knots of average speed.

Bruno Peyron, prior to his departure commented: “We will try and leave with the boat as light as possible, but should be at least 11 on board. We’ll set our objectives progressively, the first one possibly being the 24-hour record – and maybe we’ll try and approach the 700-mile barrier… As far as the Atlantic record itself is concerned, we know that the current performance is outstanding, and we’ll have the obligation to leave New York at the end of August, in order to pursue our programme of records in the Mediterranean in early September.

“The chance of finding a weather window in such a short period of time remains quite reduced, and we know this period is not the best one could dream of for this record. Our goal is nevertheless to sail the boat as much as we can, in order to keep working on her optimisation for our next Jules Verne attempt next winter. And if we have a chance to add one more record to Orange’s list of achievements, we won’t miss it. We dearly wish to come home to Marseilles with a substantial result, of any nature.”