What is the objective for you on this Route du Rhum?
The objective for me it is quite clear, it is to perform. There are 53 competitors (NDLR 53 in class40) and 15 boats capable of winning. But it's not a sport where you can say to yourself: "we have the best boat, we've trained well, we're bound to win it." I'm still going to aim for the top step of the podium.
The boat dates from 2015, how have you made it evolve since then?
This boat is the proto of the series[Mach 40.3]. It is a latest generation boat from JPS. We built the moulds from scratch and we are the first to have made all the changes, especially in terms of ballasts, which we find on the current Mach 40.3. We were the precursors of all the evolutions of this model.
On the ballasts, the rear volumes have been moved. The front of the rear ballast tank was removed and placed in the rear. We find ourselves with a hole between the two ballast boxes that allows us to work in the wind.
We also modified the rudders and worked a lot on the sails.
In your opinion, what will be the difficulty of this Route du Rhum in terms of strategy, weather or personal level?
I have the advantage of having already raced a Route du Rhum in 2014. The departure is complicated, the first 7 days are important. There are 3 days when you have to acclimatize in the middle and don't put the handle in the corner. Otherwise we'll meet at the 4 e or 5 e day with guys who are completely burned out. That's where we can make a difference. You have to be a little on the reserve while staying in the game and start really accelerating strongly at the end of the 4 or 5 e day, at the moment when you are already de-Switched, de-Golfed and starting to touch the trade winds. At that moment it's the highway of the sun.
It is essentially self-management, but of course we must also pay attention to the environment. The first two days, there's a lot of traffic, a lot of current, rocks everywhere, but that's the same pattern on all the deckchairs we do. I was hit in 2016 by a cargo ship 150 miles from Brittany. It scores, every time I think about it.
What is the most memorable memory you have had in the Route du Rhum?
The village has a special atmosphere. It's an atmosphere where you get the impression that everyone wants to have a piece of their own rum. We're really busy, especially since I'm from Malouin, so local. A start to the Route du Rhum is something to experience! The passage of the locks in 2014 was just crazy. I felt like a gladiator being sent into the arena.
The arrival is also exceptional. It was my first solo Atlantic crossing, my first big race, when we arrive and there are about thirty people on the pontoon waiting for you, it's incredible.
How would you describe the Route du Rhum in two words?
It's a "sprint", and a real "adventure".
Can you tell us about the association you support?
"Overcoming cystic fibrosis." I knew him as a child, I had a neighbour with the disease who was transplanted from a heart and lung. Today he's a friend and he lives very well. When I was a kid, we worked on the association's annual day called "Les virades de l'espoir" and when I set up my 2014 Route du Rhum project, I wanted them to raise their flag on the boat. From there we were contacted by the association France which asked us to go further. Today we are flag bearers and ambassadors of this association across the oceans.
Your sophrologist is also on the village, is there a link with the association?
She offers breaks to explain how to prepare with the breathing that muco patients sometimes lack. She works with our association, which is linked to "overcoming cystic fibrosis".
For the past year I have also been working with her. On the Jacques Vabres last year when we were neck and neck with the second, I couldn't sleep because I don't want to sleep, I don't want to miss the slightest thing and go fast all the time. Except that it lasts 4 days when you're a touch-touch so you have to know how to clear your head and take a break to be more efficient behind.
Can we take a tour of your boat for you to introduce it to us?
It is a last generation boat that was finished building and launched in August 2015. It is made of a glass/epoxy sandwich. It is a boat that has an egg structure construction. When you take an egg lengthwise and try to break it, the forces are distributed, but when you punch it it breaks very quickly. The whole structure is at the bottom, to have a very low centre of gravity and the bridge is only a hood. If you pull on the pull points of the front sails, the whole front passenger compartment is deformed. So we have to take them down again or the bridge will tear off.
As a civil engineer, I didn't work on the bridge anymore. Hydrodynamics I know a little bit, but not from there to draw a hull. On the other hand, the bridge is really in my sauce. The centre of gravity is very low, there are tunnels with ends, the cockpit is deep and low, the size of the roof has been reduced - compared to Mach 40.2 it is half as much volume, and I wanted to have maximum protection so there is no entry of ends on the sides at the "ears" to avoid water entry. We really simplified the deck layout, very few ends to reduce weight and simplify manoeuvres. We still find all the 3D settings that worked well: only one symmetrical setting on both sides. Finally, large water drains are planned[Editor's note: The cockpit is closed].
Inside, port and starboard navigation stations have been installed in the galleries under the cockpit benches to be upwind when the boat is lying down. On paper it works, in practice much less so... because no matter how hard we try: to put on foams, work with a helmet... we get fucked up. Actually, we can't work there. It's only downwind when it's cool that we can get started.
In 2015 we had only that, in 2016 I added a central screen at the bottom of the descent which also has the advantage of being visible from the outside and more accessible.
Finally, it is the boat that has the record for the distance covered in 24 hours. I went up to 28.7 knots, and we're doing 15.7 knots on average over 24 hours!
