This will be your 4 e participation in the Vendée Globe, and you've already won it once, what makes you want to go back?
Because we like it and it's a professional sport. Like all other professional sports, today it is structured. It is the adventure, but more in the way to do it and to prepare it. Obviously when you like it, you go back. It's like a lot of athletes who go back to major competitions. Today we are a bit the same thing.
The objective is clearly to win, once again?
Yeah, that's one of my goals. My first goal is to finish because it's never easy. It's a long road, a great adventure, a big competition. Now the goal is to finish as high as possible, preferably ahead.
You are favorites on this 8 e edition, doesn't that put extra pressure on you?
No, because there are very few people who have had the chance to win this race and I am one of them. So it's more likely to relax me than put pressure on me. In the end, with me there are people who started to do the Vendée Globe more than 10 years ago and who never managed to recover the victory and who today, are among the favourites. For them, it has to be hard. For me, I have already done it once and if I do it a second time it is bonus. Clearly, that's not extra pressure.
Is it a plus to have already won the Vendée Globe once?
It's a chance, now it's not all. That is not all we can count on. Every time we start a race again, everything remains to be done. The counters are reset, you must not fall asleep because you have already managed to do so and win. Each time, it is a new challenge and it is not easy what awaits us. We must put all our energy, all our skills and all our experience at the service of this adventure that we wished to succeed in going to the end of our project. And God knows it takes energy to get there.
You chose not to equip PRB with foils, why?
Because we had one of the best boats in the fleet when we launched this project. And we made a choice to keep it. Not putting on foils was natural enough, in the sense that it's not something magical. It is a solution for the future that is being developed. But today, it's no more likely to succeed in a Vendée Globe than drifting boats like ours. We didn't see the point in investing and taking risks by changing the configuration of the boat when we already had a high-performance and reliable boat.
Now, our colleagues who have made new boats have made choices quite logical compared to foils. It is a solution for the future. When you build a boat for a race or for the next race, you inevitably go towards the solution of the future that innovates. In the time available, it didn't seem essential to have a hydrofoil boat to win so we made the choice to keep our old boat.
How did you prepare for this Vendée Globe?
We have to do as many things as we can. I made the decision to leave almost 2 years ago and I put all my energy around this project. I took part in all the races of the IMOCA championship, including the two transats which took place in spring 2016. We made a round trip to the United States with the solo Transat in England and the New York - Vendée.
I am part of the collective of the Pôle France de Port-La-Forêt and I have participated in all the training courses for 2 years with my colleagues. I continued to train myself and develop my boat. Even if there were no foils, there are developments on PRB that make it more efficient than a year ago. It's all of this that is preparing us for a Vendée Globe. It's full of little things that make us continue to increase our level of performance and skills. That's what we do every day when we prepare a project like the Vendée.
What is your biggest apprehension on this world tour?
It's clearly not succeeding in finishing: breakage, technical problems, mistakes... There are several reasons why you don't finish a Vendée Globe. You can break equipment, collide with objects, boats... There are quite a few risks on the water that are complicated to manage because you can't keep a permanent watch.
There is also the mistake you can make when manoeuvring, and therefore break your boat and not finish the race. So that's our primary apprehension, clearly.
How do you deal with family separation for about three months?
We do the best we can, like a lot of things. We keep in touch, we keep in touch, we're interested in what's going on here. For my part, I am lucky to have a family that has always known me as a sailor so it is also part of their life. So it's easier because they're used to it. Every year, they see me off on races and it's a bit in our family normality. I think it helps a lot.
Now you have to take a little interest in them when you're at sea. We must not be purely selfish. You have to try to share the trick and be interested in what's going on here, when you're on the oceans.
Do you bring an unusual object? Which one?
No, nothing special except a family photo album.
What are your living conditions? With the image banks, we can see that you take sea packs, is that the case all the time?
There are times when we dry off and the boats are very protected. In the end the boats are under water, but in our cockpits we are not soaked, we are safe. However, as soon as you go out, as soon as you move, you are soaked, but you need good equipment (waxed, etc.). There are days when you spend a lot of time outdoors and swim, but overall, you're much better protected than you could have been before.
Do you have any blues and what are we taking to cheer us up in the Vendée Globe?
Morale is very much related to fatigue. If today we have a morale that fluctuates a lot during the races, it is because we are tired. Fatigue is often an accelerator of emotion. We often like to say that at sea we can go from laughter to tears in a few minutes. So when you get a blues, you don't necessarily get a morale blow. It's that you're tired and at one point the emotions are a little accelerated by this fatigue.
The best recipe is to try to preserve yourself a little and sleep well to regain the form and morale that goes with it. It's all tied up all the time. Declines in diet and morale are related to fatigue alone.
How do we get organized to sleep?
On 3 months of race, we sleep it's on! We're like everyone else, we need to rest. We sleep differently from the earthlings, that's all! About 5/6 hours per day per 24 hours on average. A rhythm with many irregularities. Sometimes you sleep for two hours at a time.
We're not doing the Solitaire du Figaro, where three days later we're ashore and we're sleeping for 3 days for 5 minutes, 15 minutes and 20 minutes. We're talking three months! You need real rest, real sleep. And sleep and our physical state are an issue on the success of our project. Sleeping well on the Vendée Globe is an obligation. If we don't respect it, we have no chance of succeeding.
How many food days do you plan? Are you bringing something specific you love?
We bring what we need. I must have in theory 80 and a few days of food and 100 days in practice, in case of problems. Food doesn't ultimately mean much in our business. It represents between 100 and 150 kilos on a boat which will leave the port of Les Sables by making not far from 8 tons. Plus it's mobile weight.
I bring what it takes to make the body work. It is not by boating that we enjoy eating. Of course we don't have any fresh food, so we only eat canned or dehydrated food. Today, the dishes are very correct, but from there to say that we are going to make small pleasures while eating, it is a little displaced. This is neither the place nor the place. We eat properly, we're not unhappy, but compared to what we can do on land, it's definitely not worth a good restaurant!
Are there moments of relaxation and how do we occupy them?
We try to be concentrated, but from time to time, when the conditions are stable, and there are few stakes in the navigation, it's worth the effort to arrange small periods when we let go of the race and relax. Sure, leaving with some good books and a little music to clear your head is not bad. It's part of the thing.
Now you have to know that you rarely get to enjoy it. But once in a while, if you can do it, it's a shame you can't do it. It's a way to recharge your batteries, get motivation back on track and try to be better in the end.
I think it has to be done, but it's not obvious. Today, it goes very, very fast and you have to know when you can distract yourself, even if there aren't many of them. But we do it anyway and we have to do it to get some freshness.
Do you get seasick and how do you manage it?
I don't have it and I never did. This is not the case for all my colleagues. Many people get seasick. That's an advantage!
It's especially at the beginning because we get amused very quickly! When you get seasick, it's the first few days. But already, the start of the race is complicated with the start from Europe. You leave the land, you have to take your sailor's pace... There are a lot of violent and complicated things to manage so seasickness is an extra layer.
Do you also have communication obligations at sea? How do you manage them?
It's all over the place. It goes last That's one more layer of stuff to do during the day. It's interesting to do it when there are things to tell. It has to be useful.
