An aborted attempt
It is not this year that François Gabart will add the Mediterranean Record to his list of achievements. After three weeks of waiting for an opportune weather window, the young skipper of Macif decided to give up. With his router, Jean-Yves Bernot, they had to admit that the right conditions for the record never presented themselves.
"They are simple and well known: it is a mistral that goes further than its usual domain, that is to say to the African coasts. During our stand-by period, there was some wind at the beginning, but never further than Sardinia "says Jean-Yves Bernot. "The five-six day forecasts were often quite good, but the closer we got to the deadline, the more the wind died down from Corsica. We had a relatively calm month of October, with very anticyclonic conditions, which is still the case this week." said François Gabart.
The two men have been hoping for a weather window until the end, but the last one they have been watching since last weekend, with a departure scheduled for October 26, has closed. "We would have attempted it even if the conditions had been approximate, but that wasn't even the case." confirms Jean-Yves Bernot.
A disappointment for François Gabart, who would have liked to snatch the record (18 hours 58 minutes and 13 seconds) from Armel le Cléac'h's hands. " I'm obviously disappointed, because I'm a competitor, but we have no regrets, because we didn't miss a good opportunity. That's part of the record game."
Experience gained
This period of stand-by did not allow the sailor to complete his record program, but he was able to gain more experience in sailing aboard Macif. "The delivery trip and the numerous training sessions on site have allowed us to learn even more about the boat and its potential. The Mediterranean is a complex body of water that requires you to sail differently; the weather changes quite strongly and surprisingly."
The return to Lorient of the blue and yellow trimaran marks the end of the 2016 season, a positive one in the eyes of the skipper "We did a race, The Transat bakerly, which we won and we broke the 24 hour record which confirmed the speed potential of the boat. And even though we couldn't go all the way with the record attempts, we gained a lot of experience for the rest of the program: you have to be ready all the time, stay well organized to be able to perform at any time."
Macif's winter work camp
Macif is expected to return to Lorient this October 28, 2016 and enter the yard. François Gabart for his part will join Les Sables-d'Olonne and the Vendée Globe village to play the role of commentator at the start.
"It always starts with checking the structure and dismantling all the parts. We've had a good pull on the boat this year, especially during the delivery trip to the Mediterranean, during which we encountered some pretty rough conditions, but a priori there is no major damage. After that, we haven't planned any major structural modifications, but we have a nice job-list, with a lot of small evolutions whose objective is to facilitate maneuvers and life on board and which, put together, will keep us busy."
