In the week before the start of the Solitaire Urgo le Figaro, we met Fabien Delahaye on his Figaro 3 Loubsol moored on the quays of Nantes, for an interview without taboos.
You come back to La Figaro after a small absence to sail on other media, why come back?
A little like everyone else, for the change of support, the arrival of the Figaro 3. It is a year of transition not to be missed. The sporting challenge is interesting, there are a lot of people, the boat is new and everyone has the same amount of experience. We approach Solitaire with a lot of questions and it's going to be interesting.
I did 6 years of Figaro from 2009 to 2014, then I sailed for the others and I wanted to take up a project of my own. To relaunch a project, to search for partners and by writing a new story and there is no better support than Le Figaro to start a new story with partners.
And finally, the solo exercise without worrying about the technical aspect is exciting. From a sporting point of view, we are on an equal footing and that is interesting. The level is therefore higher and the match is tighter. This new boat also brings an additional challenge: learning to use it faster than the others.
You received the boats relatively late for a Solitaire du Figaro which takes place early in the season, how did you focus your preparation and training?
I am based in Lorient with OC Sport. There are three boats in this structure. We received the boats in January, we were able to start assembling them, we received them in kit form. It took 10 days of work. We had the advantage of having a 1200m² hangar thanks to the hub. This allowed us to work efficiently with 3 skippers with Charles Caudrelier and Benjamin Schwartz. Charles having had to leave for Gitana Ultim, it was Yohann Richomme who took over the helm.
Having 3 boats allowed us to alternate the work on the boats and always have a boat in the water. It's interesting because being alone, during all the downtime in the yard, the boat is not available to sail. And of course this makes it possible to pool resources and think together. We are better as a group than alone at identifying problems and solving them.
Do you consider yourself ready? Or is there still room for improvement?
The margin of progress is valid for everyone. In 4 months we cannot say that we are the best in the world and that we have understood everything. We did everything we thought was important to do, with the constraints we were able to get from after-sales service in particular[Editor's note Some defective parts in the masts immobilized the boats]. Nevertheless, we have done our best to learn from these complicated boats. With foils, it's something new and we have to find the answers. I think a lot is going to happen on this lonely girl.
Can you tell us about the Figaro 3 compared to the Figaro 2?
On the Figaro 2, we have reached 15 years of experience. It's a boat we knew by heart. The fact that there is nothing extraordinary, with a symmetrical spinnaker, the angles were very low downwind and it made for a very compact fleet, because it was hard to make the difference in terms of speed. We could stand side by side for a whole day without making a difference.
The Figaro 3 is a new boat and no one has the full instructions yet. There are speed differentials at certain very important speeds. The boat is lighter, the sail set is more modern: mainsail with horn, asymmetrical spinnaker, gennaker. The gennaker was missing on the Figaro 2. This completes the boat's range of use, but it also makes manoeuvring more complex and increases sail changing.
As a result, the strategy is different. The angles are more closed and it increases the playing surface on the water surface. Strategically, there is a risk of greater differences between boats, knowing that the speed differences are greater. But it will always be tight. Offshore, we might have more gaps, but as soon as we get closer to the coast it reduces the gaps and we will always have sprints before the finish line.
And of course the big new thing is the foils. The boat is a little smaller and a little lighter at the base and the foils make the boat even lighter at certain speeds and allow it to accelerate even more strongly than a Figaro 2.
It goes in the direction of modernity, even if you have small youth problems. We lack a little perspective to see everything. No one has yet sailed in 35 knots with heavy seas offshore. The first time we have such conditions, we may have surprises. Technically and physically, it's going to be harder than before. When sailing a gennaker in windy conditions, the boat goes very fast, it gets wet and mistakes are more expensive.
In the deck layout, there are a few things that were of course the Figaro 2 and that are not found on the Figaro 3. Like the winches on the roof that made it easier to manoeuvre. Now everything goes back to the back through the sides. Under certain conditions it makes the manoeuvres more complex.
This year's plateau sees the return of the "big names" of the Solitaire du Figaro. Does that bring extra pressure?
It's not so much pressure, but it enhances the sporting stakes. The setting is exceptional and it's a real treat to go racing. It makes the race feel good in terms of media coverage. It's proof that it's still a unique race, some arrive, others leave, but everyone ends up coming back one day. It allows you to question yourself, to keep up with the level..
For me this race is a reference. If you're looking to compete with the best sailors, you have to come to the Solitaire.
Among the things that are not one-design, there is bunkering and personal business. Is there something in there that will make a difference to you?
The particularity is that on this boat we only have a jetboil, no more cooking. This means that you can only make hot water or a water bath. And in addition, we are limited to 100kg of loading per step: water + food + clothing + everything that is mobile on board, including the bags themselves and the winch handles. In any case, it limits a lot what we can bring, we don't take anything superfluous with us.
The conditions determine what you eat, but you have to know how to cook for yourself, how to manage your sleep, even if it's in naps of 5, 10 or 15 minutes max. All in all, it doesn't look like much, but it's enough to hold the stage. On the other hand, we collapse on arrival. The boat being all the more difficult to operate with the foils, we are limited by the pilot's performance. It will limit sleep time.
In Figaro 2, you were downwind, brewed squared and you could sleep downwind. It was also easy to sleep up close.
The foil is really very different from what you knew before in terms of feeling and feeling at the helm?
The big uncertainty remains the pilot's adjustment with the foils. The foil has an anti-drift and also a lifting role to relieve the boat. The problem is that within its anti-drift role, there is the adjustment of the rake which means that you can win a little in the wind a little like a trim. But all this generates both lift and drag. A slowing boat will no longer carry on the foil, but will hang around. And if the skipper doesn't relaunch well, he'll have a lot of drag and will be slow until the relaunch. So you're going to have to be demanding at the helm to go fast, but you're also going to have to be able to put the pilot on.
What is your objective for this Solitaire du Figaro?
We are obviously not here to lose. But we are also going into the unknown, so it is impossible to pretend to say: "I will win". That's the objective, we'll do our best and do the accounts on arrival. The gaps will be larger, one step will be enough to redistribute the cards. Until the finish, I don't think the ranking will be final. Even a guy who has won two stages will not be guaranteed to finish first. It'll just show a state of form.
In 2014 I was in the lead until the 3rd Finally, we can underline the pleasant welcome of the port team, despite a late landing and the cleanliness of the sanitary facilities. step. At the start of the 3rd stage, I broke my D1, it was folded for me
But I'm happy to be leaving on this Solitaire, there's the challenge, we're going to learn a lot of things. Even on the delivery, I still learned things. It will be necessary to make fewer and less serious mistakes than others
What is your program following this Solitaire?
I left for 3 years with the partners. The idea was to create a story over the long term, not just over a season. The objective is to build something and the Figaro is perfect for that. Especially since we're a year away from the Vendée Globe, so there's no chance of finding a budget, a boat and qualifying. We're post-Rhum, so there's nothing to do about it either. In the current context, 3 years of Figaro brings us to 2021, in 2022 there will be a new Rum, then 2024 a new Vendée Globe. The objective would be to enter into this new cycle. But to start with, there are three good years to go in Figaro.
