Bruno Peyron and his crew set sails for the first time aboard the new maxi-catamaran yesterday.

The first trial saw up to 20 people including the crew, the architects, the specialist mechanics, the sailmakers and the electronic technicians takeOrangeto her base of La Trinité-sur-Mer. No major problems were reported, a good start for a trials programme scheduled to last two weeks prior to crew workup.

A pleased Peyron stated: “There was no stress, since the conditions were ideal for this first navigation. The light airs allowed us to try all the sails, and to make a checklist of all the minor details that needed to be taken care of. It’s still way too early to notice the main differences with the previous boat, since the objective of this first day at sea was not to search for performance, but to achieve a rigorous observation work, especially concerning the giant’s sails inventory. It’s critical, in order to check the triangulation, and to take a look at the sails’ shape, their position on the rig. The good news is that there’s no need to send the sails back to the manufacturer, everything works smoothly, we took reefs and it’s all going well.”