Catamaran Orange. Commando operation at the Multiplast boatyard
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Since Saturday February 16th, the day Orange's mast came into the boatyard's workshop after it broke at its top section, a whole team was set up in order to carry out the repairs promptly.
While some of the technicians were busy cutting and preparing the moulds for the top part of the mast, Patrick Cissé, in charge of the purchases at Multiplast, made contact with the carbon fibre dealer Structil. The objective : to be able to come in possession of the required materials for a 5 meter long element, as soon as possible.

Mast breaks on Orange

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While sailing under gennaker and single reefed main, the catamaran Orange had the tip of her mast snap about 1 metre from the top, half an hour after crossing the starting line of the Jules Verne Trophy off the island of Ushant (Brittany).
Thursday 14th February 2002 / 1300 GMT
From the conversation between the French skipper of the maxi catamaran Bruno Peyron and Yann Penfornis, member of the Gilles Ollier Design Team and the Multiplast yard that designed and built Orange, there is nothing that can for the moment really explain the failure. Even more so, because before setting the gennaker..

Emotion and passion....
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It was in the prestigious surroundings of the Paris Maritime Museum on December 12th 2001 that the American Steve Fossett was awarded the official trophies crowning his extraordinary time on the Atlantic crossing last October 10th. As for Gilles Ollier, architect and builder of the catamaran Jet Services V, ex-holder of the record, he handed over the design trophy to Gino Morelli and Pete Melvin, the "fathers" of Steve Fossett's catamaran PlayStation.
Gilles Ollier: "Some people think or suggest that I should be sad having lost the reference time on the Atlantic that our boats have so many times beaten and held for 13 years.