On 6th November 2017, the maxi trimaran Spindrift 2 will begin her stand-by period in view of her Jules Verne Trophy record attempt. For this new challenge, Yann Guichard will be surrounded by a crew of eleven men with an eclectic background: offshore sailors, Olympic course, sailing in sport multihulls and Figaro boats. Out of the twelve sailors, seven have already taken part in the previous attempt.
New crew members on board Spindrift 2
Among them, Thierry Chabagny has just returned from a Solitaire and a Fastnet in the Figaro solo Ewen Le Clech is back on the trimaran he fine-tuned alongside Pascal Bidégorry in 2010, whilst Briton Sam Goodchild is equipping Yann Guichard on the match-race circuit this season and for the past two years on the ocean-going trimaran. Thomas le Breton - a former member of the French Olympic Laser and then Finn team - was tactician with Groupama Team France on the America's Cup in Bermuda.
Finally, Tanguy Cariou, a former member of the French Olympic team and a D35 team member, will be in charge of the first part of the stand-by. He will be relayed, from November 26th by Erwan Le Roux (who raced in the last Transat Québec-Saint Malo aboard Spindrift 2), on his return from the Transat Jacques Vabre.
These new skippers will join the six crew members of the first attempt in 2015, around Yann Guichard, skipper of the black and gold trimaran. They will be joined by Xavier Revil, Christophe Espagnon and François Morvan, crew he has been working with since the Olympic preparations. But also Antoine Carraz and Jacques Guichard, who have been part of the Spindrift team since its beginnings, or Erwan Israël, who was already the navigator on board on the previous attempt.
Dona Bertarelli, who was present for the first attempt, will not be present this time due to family, professional and philanthropic responsibilities. She will nevertheless be present on the challenge with the shore team's operational unit.
A record hard to beat
The crew will be supported by the shore router Jean-Yves Bernot, who will have to advise them on the strategic choices to be made to beat the competition the stopwatch directed by Francis Joyon january 26, 2016 from 40 d 23 h 30' in 2017 by IDEC Sport. The bar is particularly high for this Jules Verne Trophy, which has only been beaten by nine successive multihulls since its creation in 1993 (79 d 6 h 16' by Commodore Explorer) and almost halved in twenty-four years.
Crew composition
Yann Guichard (skipper)
Erwan Israel (navigator)
Jacques Guichard (shift manager/setter-helmsman)
Christophe Espagnon (watch commander/ number one helmsman)
Xavier Revil (shift manager/setter-operator)
François Morvan (coxswain)
Antoine Carraz (helmsman-setter)
Thierry Chabagny (helmsman/number one)
Ewen Le Clech (coxswain)
Sam Goodchild (coxswain/number one)
Thomas Le Breton (helmsman)
Tanguy Cariou (helmsman-setter)/Erwan Le Roux (helmsman-setter)
Shore-based router: Jean Yves Bernot
