Maiden II, new Round Britain & Ireland record holder*

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September 10, 2002 : at 06:52.29 local time (05:52:29 Gmt) Tracy Edwards' maxi-catamaran Maiden II (ex Club Med) skippered by Brian Thomson, crossed the finish line on their Round Britain and Ireland record attempt, smashing the existing record by more than 24 hours.
They completed the course in 4 days 17 hours 3 minutes and 23 seconds with an average speed of 15.8 kts over the 1,787 mile course. A new honnor on Maiden II score line who is since June 2002, the 24-hour record holder with 694,78 miles at the average speed of 28,94 knots. Geronimo, the 34 meter-trimaran of Olivier de Kersauson also built by Multiplast (design Van Peteghem/Lauriot-Prevost), started from the Lizard point the same day but 41 minutes earlier, has run the course with a chrono of 4d 22h 05' 52" : only 5 hours more than Maiden II.

* subject to ratification by the Wssrc

Catamaran Orange. Damage to mast.

esterday afternoon, Mer & Média, the press agency for the Catamaran Orange announced that the dismasting of the multihull in the Mediterranean was due to the rupture of a lower-shroud chain plate. We should like to point out that the chain plate is not at fault in this incident. In fact, the part which is responsible for the dismasting forms part of the standing rigging. It is an aluminium articulation bent onto to the chain plate with a spectra lashing to form the join with the lower shroud. Multiplast therefore bears no liability for this regrettable incident.

Gitana X is sailing again.

After having spent 10 weeks in the Multiplast shed following damage sustained during the delivery for the Grand Prix de Zeebrugge, Gitana X has had her crossbeams reinforced. As it turned out, the work took a little bit longer than originally been expected. During the reinforcement phase of the 4 crossbeam butt joints, (Cf diagram), it was considered more mechanical to extend the reinforcements as far as the inside of the floats in order to avoid concentrating loads on the deck.
This development in the reinforcing work meant that Multiplast had to open the float decks on a level with the four crossbeams in order for the extra thicknesses of carbon-fibre reinforcements to be added.
Back on the water last week, training got underway once again on Sunday 8th September. From now on, the number one objective is to get as much sailing in as possible, to keep clocking up the miles so that Gitana X is in the best configuration possible for La Route du Rhum which gets underway on 10th November out of Saint-Malo (France).