Lending’s Next Goal: Newport-Bermuda Record
Just two weeks ago the maxi-trimaran Lending Club 2 set a new sailing speed record on the English Channel: from Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, to Dinard, France — and the crew have now set their sights on breaking the Newport-Bermuda sailing record.
Driven by Renaud Laplanche, CEO of Lending Club, with co-skipper Ryan Breymaier, the 138-nautical mile passage was completed in 5 hours and 15 minutes at an average speed of 26.36 knots; shaving 8 minutes off the record that had stood since 2002.
Now berthed at the Newport Shipyard, the 105-foot Lending Club 2 and her crew are in preparation mode for their next challenge: the 635-nautical mile Newport to Bermuda course record.
Lending Club 2, photo by Lloyd Images
Laplanche chartered the racing yacht for the 2015 season with the express goal of conquering three speed sailing records: Cowes-Dinard, Newport-Bermuda and the 2,215-nautical mile Transpac [Los Angeles to Honolulu].
With one course record under their belts, Laplanche and Breymaier hope to sail Lending Club 2 – which is capable of speeds over 40 knots in the right conditions – to a new Newport-Bermuda record.
Laplanche is no stranger to success – either on the water or off. A two-time French National Champion in the Laser class [1988, 1990], the now 45-year-old entrepreneur put an Olympic campaign behind him to focus on business and progressed from work as a securities lawyer to founding the software company TripleHop Technologies [acquired by Oracle in 2005], before founding Lending Club in 2006.
It was while racing in the 2013 Transpac, on John Sangmeister’s 72-foot trimaran, that Laplanche met Breymaier and discovered a shared passion for sailing and winning. [They were first to finish and took first place in the multihull division on the Orma 72.]
Breymaier, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, has become one of America’s most prominent offshore sailors and currently holds the world sailing speed record for New York to San Francisco: 13,225 nautical miles in 47 days.
Video of the Cowes to Dinard speed sailing record
Lending Club 2 will return to the City by the Sea following the Newport-Bermuda passage. The yacht will then head to New York for a week to share the sailing experience with Lending Club employees and guests, as well as with students from two New York-based maritime schools who hope to eventually make a career on the water.
More sailing news please. This is good for Bermuda. We should be the home of sailing.
Congrats on the new record