You made a lot of modifications on the boat, especially by adding foils. Can you tell us about it?
This winter the team did a big job. We redid the whole boat. His name is Helevetia, he's white and red. It is the former MACSF of Bertrand de Broc. She's a good granny, but we did it all over again. Now he's hot.
Starting with the cockpit: we cut out the whole old cap, we went back to the original roof to rebuild an arch structure. The idea was to have a removable hoop to adapt it to the crew, to have a place where you can be several in the cockpit without embarrassing yourself. We made this double hoop made of tarpaulin and fabric so very light to save weight. It also allows you to quickly switch from a crew configuration to a solo configuration by unzipping.
Then we redid the whole deck layout, all the coamings, the entrance of all the ends into the cockpit, all the tunnels, all the textile blockers. We went into a titanium part that we designed internally to really do something clean and simple.
Before it was twelve thousand blockers from all over, it was Baghdad! We did something clean, simple with good end pockets. The deck has been carbonized almost everywhere to rebuild the entire aft section. We made reinforcements in delaminated areas. We ground a good part of the interior and gained a monstrous weight. The entire front structure of the boat has been lightened to a lighter and stronger structure.
So we took the opportunity to do a double work site to install the foils. The big project was really the front end with the integration of the foils. This led us to change to carbon rigging to get something stronger. We changed a lot of ends too, all the jaws of the blockers, a lot of pulleys, everything was oversized. We saw the whole boat again to do light things. The day it was taken out of the water for the site there was a weight X, the goal was to get the same weight, but with all the modifications, knowing that the foils add a lot of weight. We know that we removed between 300 and 400 kilos from the boat. We did a crazy job, there was shit everywhere. The keel jacks were overhauled, the engine removed from the boat. The boat was naked! We emptied everything out.
Inside the boat, nothing was done except cleaning, plugging up all the crap that had accumulated over the years. We put the plexi bubbles back in to let the light in and no longer feel like we were in a cellar.
What is your objective with foils?
They are good in all wind conditions, even if under 15 knots of wind, no foils are really performing well. But then... like all foilers. My foils are very versatile and efficient and that was the goal. The boat was already a great meadow boat, we kept the targets of the front meadow while trying to improve it. Nowadays, we do better with foils than with daggerboards.
Same for the downwind, we have the same speeds. We've only increased. At reaching we can go up to 3 to 4 knots faster than before. That said, they are "complicated" foils. If you go up or down 5% of the foils, you set 1° too much, you have lost 3 knots.
We know that the boat now has the potential to go at Hugo Boss' speed, but you need to have the full listing of each wind to take it at that speed. The boat can now play with very good boats and that's really cool!
The entire foil adjustment system is returned to the rear. It's only from the end. It works fine. You let go of the downhill end, it goes down alone. Same for reassembling it, it's very simple. On the other boats, they have trouble winching like sagoons... In short, everything is going very well! I thought I had the biggest one, but when Charal and PRB arrived... But better a small one that wriggles than a big one that snoozes!
Are you satisfied with the performance of your boat? Does it meet your expectations?
I didn't expect anything. Between what is written on paper and reality, it is never the same. But in the end, it's even better than what the paper said. However, we have not yet had the conditions to make a real foil. We did a couple of trips where we really got the boat off the ground. He has a flight that is very stable compared to the others, it's a strength. It only accelerates. But we could only do a few tacks. There was no wind this summer, it was a massacre. When we did the image bank in 40 knots, the sea was disgusting. As soon as the boat accelerated, it fell back into the trough of the waves. There were the runs of the Azimut challenge, I think that's where we walked best. We were at 24 knots, the boat constant, resting on her foil. I think the boat can go up to 30/35 knots in peak easily.
But this boat is a gas factory! I'm far from 100% mastering it! There is still a lot of room for improvement. Even sails can't be adjusted the same way anymore! This is amazing! At least after the rum, I'll have it in my hand!
Do you have any other evolutions planned after the Rum?
Any other developments? Not much of anything. Maybe work on the weights in the boat, the sails... But I will probably have a listing as long as my arm after the end of the Rum.
After that it's always the same, at what price are the modifications worth it? For the moment we're already going to make it sail. We've already invested well in this boat, we'll see how it performs. But there will certainly still be at least one big project.
What are the objectives for the 2018 Route du Rhum?
We're gonna kick ass!!!!! Top 10! And better if possible, but top 10, there is a way: there are 10 foilers. It looks more like a drift boat race from what we can see from the weather to date[Editor's note: we met Alan on Monday, November 29]. We're going to shit on some of the paces. Drift boat skippers are rubbing their hands in mode: "So it works with foils?! You're going to shit!"
But above all, the main thing is to have fun, to be in harmony with the boat, to be well, to understand it, to make it work. Each nav is additional experience. We didn't have time this year to go to the great navy, to go out to sea.
On the course what will be the difficulty in terms of weather, strategy or even personally?
Personally, the challenge is to be able to sail this boat 100% from start to finish. At least 100% of what I know now. To get into the game and attack from the start, not to give a minute's respite, in one minute you get murdered..
In terms of weather strategy, given the current state of the Atlantic, I would like to say: "we'll see". You don't have to be too stupid, but if it goes on like that, the one who will make the best option will pass. It won't be the fastest boat.
Can you tell us your story about the Route du Rhum?
I had followed the Rum when I was younger, but it was not an easy thing to follow. There are so many categories, it's not like the Vendée Globe where they're all the same boats. I lived my Rum in 2014 with an abandonment in Roscoff. But it was a great thing because it's what allows me to be here today. To slap myself in the face and say to myself, "Shit, there I failed, I have to come back". I'm happy to be in Saint-Malo, 4 years later, with a great boat. In addition there is my old boat that also participates, it's fun. I say to myself: "Good luck to you, new skipper, you'll shit, good luck". It is my memory of the Rum that may be negative, but in the end it is ultra positive. I get nothing but good out of this experience. There is not a day in my life that I don't think about this abandonment. I ask myself: "Why? Could I have avoided this? Could I have done anything?" I'm going back to erase that abandonment. This is revenge! Except when I see the weather, I think "Shit" to the end he'll piss me off with this rum. [Laughs]
How would you describe the Route du Rhum in two words?
[Reflection]... Rum? Ti punch!... You have to find the right word[Hesitation]... A "moth"! This race is a "tinea". There are sailors for whom this is their seventh time, just to finish it. I'm told "You finished the Vendée Globe", yes the Vendée Globe is tough, but so is the Route du Rhum! The Route du Rhum is "unpredictable", "frustrating"! It is the most beautiful of the deckchairs [ "but listening to her all the races are the most beautiful" says Aurelia, her partner]. I don't know... Rum is "deckchair", "cold", "ice cube" whereas logically it's "sun", "heat", "West Indies", "happiness", "zouk" and there no one has the impression of going to Halifax[City in the north of the United Kingdom]. It's a race to be won.
