Jehan and Charlu - Charles-Hubert - met up with their Sun Odyssey 479 in Las Palmas to get to the heart of the matter: a real double-handed transatlantic race, in race mode of course! It's a dream that Johan already had when he arrived in his AG2R transat 20 years ago: "I'll do a transat with my son again!" At the time, Charlu was only 10 years old..
An output to evaluate the new spinnaker
In the Canary Islands, the crew is supported by its family, but does not lose sight of its objective. No sooner has the big spinnaker been delivered by Incidences than a test is scheduled, the day before the start. Appointment is made, Bateaux.com is of course out!
Jehan masters the harbour manoeuvres perfectly - remember that our skipper is a former Paris-Dakar racer, he masters the mechanics - while Charlu is busy at the piano and on the foredeck. The electric winch is welcome to hoist the mainsail, the genoa is quickly unfurled... already a swell to remind us that the Canaries are right in the middle of the Atlantic or almost! 10 knots of wind no more. The Sun Odyssey 479 is sailing close-hauled to windward. The bag comes out of the hold, hoisting the spinnaker in her sock. The 175 m2 slams before settling in, with a splendid "Micoton 7" visible from the deck.
Micoton, for those who didn't follow, it's for Johan's wife, Mylène... And as for the font, which highlights the first letter and the number 7, it's James Bond's... 007 of course! If you loosen it up a bit, you can easily go over 6 knots. A convincing test, you drop..
Charlu has developed a system for controlling the spinnaker sock from the cockpit, so that the bubble can be three quarters choked without having to move to the foredeck. An idea put forward by Michel Desjoyeaux..
A start in regatta mode
Two days later, bunkering done, hydrogenerator reattached on the transom, father and son set off from Las Palmas. Motivated - not for nothing that they entered the ARC Racing category - they didn't cross the line in the lead, however, but positioned themselves well upwind of the fleet to avoid being covered by the bigger boats.
We were able to follow Micoton 7 for a few minutes, which was making good progress under gennaker, before making a big hit to the south of Gran Canaria, heading for Saint Lucia. Except that the trade winds aren't really there: a long ridge of high pressure extends right along the route, with its share of calms. The alternative: climb to the North of the route, quickly cross a very hollow low with its share of boat-breaking seas and headwinds, and finally find the trade winds again or spoon by the South, with light, but downwind winds... Basically, the winners go North, the pure cruisers to the South - with a high probability of being stalled by the Northerners - which Micoton 7 is part of, of course! In short, it's shaking, blowing and raining, but Jehan and Charlu are holding on for the moment to a fine 4th place in Class B. Go, go, Micoton!
