Alinghi (D35), © Chris Schmid / Eyemage Media.
by Paco Latorre
The D35 season may be over, but the Alinghi crew isn't ready to swap sailing boots for skis just yet. The six-man crew is on stand-by for the Swiss Ruban Bleu record attempt run by the Société Nautique de Genève in partnership with Syz&Co and currently held by Philippe Cardis who notched up a 4 hour, 53 minute record with his D35, Julius Baer, in October 2007. The record attempt follows the same course as the Bol d'Or, so from Geneva to Le Bouveret and back; the full stretch of the lake. There a few rules to obey: you must start before 1300 for safety reasons (night sailing being prohibited) and you must achieve the record before the end of October (too cold after that) or wait until next year.
Alinghi has not attempted the Ruban Bleu before, although both Pierre-Yves Jorand and Christian Wahl have. Jorand was a record holder in 1993 with the multi-hull Poseidon, setting the record at just over five hours.
The Alinghi team is on stand-by for a weather window on Lake Geneva – we find out about preparations and the ideal conditions for such an attempt from Pierre-Yves Jorand...
Have you not had enough for the year!?
PYJ: Not yet – there are still some really nice sailing days left! The idea is to have some fun together and try to go as fast as possible before the end of October. We are not only trying for the Ruban Bleu record, but also the fastest speed within 1 km and the highest average boat speed in 1 hour. So there are three records in one day.
How do you prepare for such an attempt?
PYJ: There are two aspects: First the boat preparations – you have to set up for a heavy air day, which includes the sail selection, the safety and the rig set-up. The other aspect – probably the most critical – is the weather. You have to make sure you have the best chance of breaking the record on the day you chose. We have put Christian Wahl in charge of the weather – he is working with Meteo Suisse on this. We have three codes: red, orange and green. Red means the crew needs to be available within four days. Orange means the start can happen within 24 hours and green means a start any time. It's important for people to know this in order to manage their schedules.
What is the ideal weather window?
PYJ: You need constant wind speed, not necessarily high. The direction is probably more important because you need to avoid tacking or gybing as much as possible – you need the most direct line. And the last factor is the sea state: the flatter the better, especially for the D35 that lacks hull volume – every wave slows the boat dramatically.
What is the current status?
PYJ: Weather is a pretty hard science. Right now we don't have anything scheduled. It is hard to predict outside of 96 hours...
Will you have the usual crew for the record attempt?
PYJ: Probably, yes. Although I'm not sure how easy it will be for Cora [Jonet] to join us from Marseille at short notice. I will need to define this with her... We will have Christian Wahl doing the navigation and weather, Tanguy Cariou, Yves Detrey, Nils Frei, myself and Ernesto. Depending on the weather we might look for a seventh person.
Alinghi
