Just before 8:00 am local time Wednesday morning, Yacht Bank BPH has left the harbor of Benodet, France for the start line of round the world record attempt.

Exactly at 8:45 am BPH Volvo 60 with captain Roman Paszke and his 9 crew crossed the virtual line of the round the world record attempt.

Starting in 7 knots of northwest breeze and calm seas Paszke will try to establish fully crewed monohull circumnavigation record. However, as there is no trace of this kind of record with World Sailing Council, Bank BPH yacht would be the first yacht to attempt this.

After purchasing two old Assa Abloy yachts last December from Swedish Volvo team, Paszke and the crew have been training in the south of France in preparation for round the world record attempt. As Volvo 60 yachts have been designed with maximum of 30 days on the water in mind, Bank BPH had undergone major refit in order to accommodate all sails, equipment and food necessary for the round the world trip.

Recently one of the two yachts was transported to Poland and it is now displayed in the Warsaw’s old town for Bank BPH promotional purposes.

With Poland getting ready to join the European Union later this year, the timing of this attempt is no accidental as Bank BPH is trying to get the most exposure in European market. Following Orange or Kingfisher who were very successful with their sailing campaigns this seems to be the right way to go for Polish Bank.

The timing for their departure is no accidental either, with Bruno Peyron Orange maxi-catamaran starting from Ushant today, Cheyanne just south of the equator and Gerenimo waiting to be repaired and restart, it looks like everyone saw the same weather window.

Just before the departure Paszke said that they are expecting to see 20 kt later today and once they get on the ocean in few days they should experience 27 to 42 kt of northwest winds. For this being untypical weather in Biscay with predominantly easterly winds this is a perfect scenario to get south to the Canaries and get in the trade winds and precede south into the Southern Ocean.

photo www.thmartinez.com/