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| French sail vessels prepping for the Transpac Race From Los Angeles to Hawaii |
San Pedro
Gets a Sneak Peek at l'Hydroptere - A Sleek Sailing Racer Its French maker
Claims Can Fly Over the Sea
By Diana L.
Chapman
They don't
really want you to know about it.
But it's
difficult to miss. Sitting like a small airplane ready for takeoff at the most
southern tip of Miner Street in San Pedro, the aerodynamic/marine cross, nearly 60 feet longvessel arrived
at the Port of Los Angeles this week to make adjustments and prepare for a potentially history making
challenge.
The French
team wants to break the 2005 Transpac record -- a sailing race that starts near
the Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro and ends off the Diamond Head
Lighthouse -- 2,215 nautical miles across the sea.
And that's exactly
why the "l'Hydroptere -DCNS" is here in Los Angeles- at the newly
developed Cabrillo Marina in the Port of Los Angeles -- to prove its one of the
fastest sailing vessels to exist.
While it's French makers claims it can
practically fly and skim over the sea, the group has set out to topple the record-breaker--
the Trimaran Geronimo (also sailed by a French team in 2005) which made the
journey if four days, 19 hours and 37 seconds, said Rachel Campbell, a Port of
Los Angeles spokeswoman.
"After
an anxious 24 hours prior to crossing the finish line, the crew on board
Geronimo have succeeded in breaking the previous record of 5 days, 9 hours and
26 seconds, set in the 1997 Transpac
race by Bruno Peyron, by 13 hours," according to the International
Sailing Federation's website."
L'Hydroptere
will visit for a few more days as its crew installs a new rudder and works on
the "sail drive," Campbell said, and the crew doesn't want any
visitors.
On Friday,
the team used a 15 foot tall crane to make mechanical improvements as they prepare
for the 2012 Transpac race. L'Hydroptere was shipped to Los Angeles by a cargo
arriving at the port on July 5 and was reassembled. "The big carbon
bird" and its team awaits safe weather conditions to start on the race.
Captain Alain Thebault and his four crew members hope to leave in 72 hours, a
media release said.
"The
five sailors will initially position themselves in a 'a code red
situation," as they await favorable conditions and prepare for the challenge
on site. As soon as a propitious weather window presents itself, they'll switch
to a 'code orange,' which is synonymous with a departure in the next 72
hours."
Thebault's
dream since childhood was to engineer a sailboat that could fly and was able to
persuade other sailors and industrialists to design such a vessel alongside
him.
