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16 June 2005, 11:56 am

Australian Crew Members For Geronimo's Circumnavigation Attempt Announced

WSSRC Record Attempt

Sydney, Australia

In a first for Australian sailors, the Australian crew members who will be onboard Geronimo during her circumnavigation of Australia have been selected. Dara JOHNSTON, Paul MONTAGUE and Christopher STIRLING all from Sydney, will join her regular racing crew. This is the first time that Geronimo has had foreign crew onboard for racing.

To date the maxi multihull has raced with an all French crew, predominantly from the Brittany region in northern France. Provided all goes well, Geronimo will set a record Round Australia time for the new sydneyaustralia.com Trophy sponsored by Tourism New South Wales.

The giant grey trimaran has made her presence felt on the dock at Foxtel Wharf at Pyrmont in Sydney with preparations for the race well underway. 'We are looking forward to this attempt and sailing in waters that have challenged us before' commented skipper Olivier DE KERSAUSON (FRA) today.

Due to the current weather conditions the anticipated departure date of 18 June has now been revised to Sunday 19 June with the possibility of this being revised again due to the boat racing against the clock and needing to leave in optimum weather conditions.

The current Round Australia record as ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) was set in July 2003 by Kaz and skipper David PESCUD (AUS) in a time of 37 days, 1 hour, 23 minutes and 57 seconds at an average speed of 7.31 knots.