Dona Bertarelli acquires Maxi Banque Populaire V
by Spindrift Racing 31 Jan 2013 08:42 GMT
31 January 2013
Maxi Banque Populaire V returns to warmer climbs © Benoit Stichelbaut / BCPE
Ocean-faring maxi trimaran known as Maxi Banque Populaire V has been acquired by Dona Bertarelli and is now gearing up to a new campaign, set to break records and create exceptional events. The trimaran will begin its new career within Dona Bertarelli's and Yann Guichard's racing stable, Spindrift racing, at the Rolex Fastnet Race 2013, on August 11 this year.
Dona Bertarelli has shown her mettle on Lake Léman with her Ladycat catamaran by finishing last year's season on the podium of the Vulcain Trophy 2012. She is also the only woman skipper to have won the Bol d'Or Mirabaud in 74 editions of the famous race. Dona is now setting herself the goal of breaking records on the biggest racing trimaran in the world.
"I am proud and happy to be able to sail on this legendary boat; it will be a great and difficult challenge to improve on the records already achieved by this trimaran," Dona Bertarelli explains. "I have thus called upon the experience of my life partner, Yann Guichard, and on all the team of the Spindrift racing stable to manage this campaign successfully."
Yann Guichard signed an excellent 2012 sports season, for example winning the Krys Ocean Race and the Multi One Championship at the helm of his trimaran, Spindrift.
From 2013 onwards, the couple has defined a joint challenge with this project of creating new records and pushing beyond old ones. The two skippers have thus reorganised their teams in order to manage the racing season under a single entity. The ocean-faring 131-foot giant, relaunched as Spindrift 2, will thus join 70-foot Spindrift and 35-foot Ladycat under Spindrift racing's banner. Spindrift racing was founded in September 2011.
The Maxi Spindrift 2 trimaran will now be put in dry dock to quit her famous blue and white colours and be decked out in her new ones. The craft will be back in the water in the spring, first for training, then to be on the departure line of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2013 race on August 11th.
Name: Spindrift 2
Stable: Spindrift racing
Skippers: Dona Bertarelli / Yann Guichard
Type: Maxi ocean trimaran
Central hull: 40 m
Floaters: 37 m
Width: 23 m
Weight: 23 tonnes
Depth: 5,80 m
Height: 47 m
Mainsail: 450 m2
Gennaker: 610 m2
Solent: 270 m2
www.spindrift-racing.com