The offshore-racing trimaran Banque Populaire V is Team Banque Populaire's[1] fifth boat designed to set oceanic records. She was launched on October 4, 2008 in Nantes, France.
With her 40 m (130 ft) length, she is currently the largest racing trimaran in the world. Her current skipper is Loick Peyron. Her first skipper, Pascal Bidégorry, entrered the Team Banque Populaire in 2004. Her sponsor is the French bank Banque Populaire.
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The architectural project for Banque Populaire V started in 2006. The architects VPLP [2](Van Peteghem / Lauriot-Prévost) designed this G-Class maxi multihull. The trimaran was built by the shipyard CDK Technologies[3] in Lorient.
She was launched at the end of August 2008 in Lorient for her sea trials.
In 2009, she made her first attempt across the northern Atlantic from west to east. On Sunday the 2nd of August 2009 she established the new record in 3 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds (an average speed of 32.94 knots), beating the previous record, held by Franck Cammas on Groupama 3, by more than 12 hours. During the attempt he also broke the 24 hour distance twice, first with 880, then, several hours later, with 907 nautical miles (1,680 km).
In 2010, the boat was moored in Brest, awaiting an opportunity for an attempt to beat the Jules Verne Trophy record (circumnavigation of the world), held since 2010, by Franck Cammas and the maxi-multihull Groupama 3.
The first such attempt started on 22 January 2011 at 12:11:45, with the objective of reaching the finish line before March 11 at 19:55:37. This attempt failed on 4 February, when she hit some debris and was forced to retire.
A second attempt began on 22 November 2011 at 09:31:42 GMT and is now underway, with the goal of completing the voyage before January 9, 2012 at 17:15 GMT+1. As of 30 December, Banque Populaire V is over 1300 nm ahead of the record pace, with 3384 nm remaining.
The first skipper of the trimaran was Pascal Bidégorry. Loïck Peyron took over in June 2011[4].