Banque Populaire V Charges Ahead

Over the weekend Banque Populaire V began an attempt on the Jules Verne record. Pascal Bidégorry’s 131-ft monster passed the Ushant lighthouse just after 11 a.m. local time on Saturday. They need to return in a little over 1.5 months to beat Franck Cammas’ benchmark of 48d, 7h, 45m aboard Groupama 3. So far, the weather has been favorable, propelling the big blue and white beast to a lead of around 170 miles over Groupama‘s reference time for this part of the course. BP V‘s 14-man crew put up 717 miles in their first day, and reached the latitude of Madeira in under 48 hours. Although there’s some question about the weather outlook as they get further south, Cammas himself has said that he feels that BP V will have a good run as far as Cape Town.

For now, Spanish navigator and Volvo vet Juan Vila, and shoreside router Marcel van Triest will have to negotiate a tradewinds-killing low in the neighborhood of the Canary Islands. Above decks, Bidégorry and watch captains Yvan Ravussin, Fred Le Peutrec and Jérémie Beyou will have to keep the other nine crew — Brian Thompson, Thierry Chabagny, Pierre-Yves Moreau, Emmanuel Le Borgne, Erwan Tabarly, Ronan Lucas, Kevin Escoffier, Xavier Revil, Florent Chastel — charging hard. You can follow their progress on the English side of their website, but if your French is any good, you’ll find a lot more info on the French side.