New record breaking program launched

(March 1, 2015) – Renaud Laplanche (FRA) and Ryan Breymaier (USA) team up for a brand new ocean racing and record breaking program starting in 2015 with the VPLP-designed 105ft maxi trimaran LENDING CLUB 2.

Renaud and Ryan met for the first time racing on John Sangmeister’s 77ft trimaran ‘Tritium Racing’, renamed “Lending Club” for the 2013 Transpac race to Hawaii where they won the race but missed the course record by just two hours.

On discovering a common vision of sailing and ocean racing, discussions ensued between the two and before departing Hawaii, they both knew they would be back together for the long term.

Throughout 2014 they worked on putting together a program that would make 2015 a record-breaking year.

Ryan was tasked with sourcing a boat and with Renaud’s support and advice they negotiated the charter of 105ft Banque Populaire VII (launched in 2006 as Groupama 3) from its new owner for the 2015 summer season.

Since 2010 the maxi trimaran has been raced in a solo-sailing configuration including a shorter rig and smaller sails. Renaud and Ryan agreed immediately that the taller rig should be reinstalled and presently the technical team is working with designers VPLP to bring the boat back to its big rig/full power mode.

Lending Club 2 is due to be launched in Lorient, France in less than two weeks when the team will commence training. While named “Lending Club 2”, the program is fully funded by Renaud personally.

Renaud and Ryan will race as co-skippers and helmsmen and have selected an international crew comprising of highly experienced French talent such as Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant and Roland Jourdain as well as rising star USA sailors Jan Majer and Skip MacCormack and German navigator Boris Herrmann. Dutch Wouter Verbraak will be shore side weather routing advisor.

The 2015 program includes a series of World Speed Sailing Record attempts taking the team to the UK, France and to both the East and West coasts of the USA including Newport, New York and San Francisco.

Updates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LendingClubSailing

Photos below by Christophe Launay.

Renaud Laplanche:
Renaud grew up in the South of France and sailed competitively from a young age. He won 2 French National championships in 1988 and 1990. Instead of starting preparation for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Renaud decided to focus on his studies and pursue a business career in New York and then San Francisco, founding two highly successful companies, the first acquired by Oracle in 2005 and the second, Lending Club, that he just took public on the New York Stock Exchange in the fourth largest US-based Internet IPO in history. Renaud became an American citizen in 2014.

Ryan Breymaier:
Ryan, an American native, had to wait until college in St Mary’s, MD before discovering sailing. Thanks to the school’s donation program, his first experience was with boats such as Whitbread 80 ‘The Card’. He quickly realized this was to be his vocation and pursued racing positions on offshore programs in the USA and Europe. In 2007 he pierced the tight world of short-handed racing in Brittany, France becoming one of the few Americans to have raced around the world non-stop in the IMOCA class, He is also holder of the WSSRC New York to San Francisco record in 2013 and winner of the New York to Barcelona IMOCA transatlantic in 2014.

Report by Lending Club Sailing.