Giant tri storming along as she approaches the Doldrums
Tuesday has so far been very fast for the 103-foot maxi trimaran Groupama 3, and the giant trimaran has drastically increased its lead over Bruno Peyron’s 2005 Jules Verne voyage in Orange II. As of this morning, Groupama’s relative lead stands at around 400 miles.
Today is a potentially significant day, as the Doldrums appear on the menu. So far, Groupama 3 is not yet suffering the effects of this, but yesterday Franck Proffit detailed their plans: “We are working on the long term scenario: for the passage of the Doldrums we have scheduled a long tack to the SW prior to finally gybing due South afterwards. We are set to pass the equator prior to sunrise on 30th January… We’re going to hit some stronger tradewinds this Monday afternoon and we will probably save more time over Orange II. It looks like things are shaping up nicely for the Southern hemisphere too!”