You come back in 2019 on the Figaro. The last one you did was in 2013. Why come back after so many years?
And why not? Why shouldn't I be allowed to come back! Last summer, I followed the boyfriends on the internet almost 24 hours a day. You follow, you look and then you say to yourself, "Why is this one going there? He's going faster, he's taken a good option, no, he's crashed..." And then you get caught up in the game, you start routing and at the end of the second stage, you say to yourself that next year: "I'm with them because I miss it, I want to play too".
I don't just want to look anymore, I still have the ability to go. After that, will I perform? It's yet another debate, but I have the skills so I'll try. And here I am!
It's going to be your 13th e pavilion Z participation, that makes you an alumnus of this race. Tell us your story about this race. Why are you attracted to her? How did you know him?
As a child, I met Jean Le Cam who was friends with my brother Hubert. Jean was a Figaro when I was 14/15 years old. I wasn't allowed to go because I was too small. One day, I had to go shopping with them and then my brother told me at the last minute that I couldn't come after all. I was in tears.
We also met Alain Gauthier. Just across the street from us was Guy Cornoux's brother. We were swimming in the sail. My parents had a maintenance and wintering yard for pleasure boats. In those years, I helped Bilou[Editor's note Rolland Jourdain] to make his first Figaro in 1984 after helping him to prepare the Mini.
I am lonely enough, the last of my family without a little brother to play with me. Very quickly I found myself sailing alone - it was easier than finding a friend to sail with you - and at some point you want to race. I started with the 25 miles of Concarneau, then the 110 miles and when there was the opportunity to participate in the Skipper Elf, I competed. I didn't win the first year, but I won the second year when it changed boats. I did two years with Elf.
Solitaire is a race where you can't lie to yourself, where you can't tell yourself: it's the fault of others. If you screwed up, it's your fault, it's only for your face. It's quite rewarding when you get there and you want to go back. And the same when you can't because you want to. It is this principle that has guided me for a good part of my career, sometimes with setbacks, but also many good moments.
Do you have a good memory of its 13 editions?
I have only good memories and also bad ones.
For example, hallucinations. On one leg in 1996, we went up to Howth, a small port above Dublin, from Cherbourg. There was no wind at all. It took me 100 hours, I'm winning the stage. I think it's the longest stage, not in distance, but in time. We were burned. We'd been sailing for four days in light airs with a lot more concentration than when there was wind. We arrive in the Irish Sea after the Saint George Canal, the wind breaks a little more the mouth and the current goes the other way. It was the first time I had to drop the anchor. I go to bed, I go down inside, I lie down in the bunk and tell my teammate: "I just put the anchor on, I'm going to bed, you wake me up when the wind comes up". My teammate was actually a competitor on another boat... And I wake up 1h30 later, I slept well, it was great! Panicked when I realized my stupidity, I threw myself on the end and went up the anchor. My hands were burning (it's a rope anchorage that hurts more than chain), but I tell myself that it's not possible that it burns that much. I leaned forward, there was a huge jellyfish folded in half on the mooring tip and I was raising stinging filaments. I finish raising the mess, I put the spinnaker on and the boat starts to get a little bit windy. But on the bottom I was moving at 0.4 knots. I was hardly making any progress, so I hadn't lost much. Afterwards I thought it was a good idea to sleep for 1h30 because it was a great recovery sleep. At the arrival of this stage, the same evening, I win the stage I arrive around midnight and the wind had still not returned. I go to bed and come back the next morning after breakfast. It's 8:00 and the 5th e pavilion Z boat is coming! I came at the right time. Not only am I one night ahead of 90% of the fleet and there are only 4 of us left to play. At each step I eliminated one more.
And on the other hand, did you have any bad memories that would have made you regret boating?
There are plenty of them, but we forget them. Nature is quite selective. We keep the good and forget the bad times.
But I still remember one time I arrived in Brest. In the light airs again - which means it's harder than the breeze - we arrive in the bay of Brest, the first one has already arrived. I'm 300 meters from the line, the current's going down. I can just hold on with the little wind so I don't have to get wet. We're 300 meters away, at the slightest laughing stock we go and it's over. The guys in the back start again with the little wind that comes in and crosses the line. And I wasted two hours! The overall ranking escapes me. When I arrived at the port, I stayed in the boat for two hours. No one could touch me, no one could talk to me. I was a nervous wreck and it took me two hours to calm down. We went out for a drink with my sponsor, opened a bottle and relaxed a little.
How is this class that you have seen grow over the years evolving?
I didn't run in half. I did the first years with the Figaro 1, with its main mast, runners and a large boom. I saw the transition to Figaro 2 and now Figaro 3
It is evolving well, becoming more professional and a little more complicated. Even if sometimes we get a little away from the sport. But I think that the excessive professionalization has disconnected us from certain things. There is a kind of "social divide", a break with simple things. For example, there is no more winter training when it was thanks to this that we started and were able to do many things. Because when you sail 3 days a week to train, on weekends you want to stay at home and you don't sail for fun. It has become such a standardised profession that we sometimes forget that it must first and foremost be a pleasure.
We are all a little bit responsible for it and it does not help to facilitate the renewal of young people who have less opportunity to sail and learn.
Today if you want to sail you will go Mini because no one else will take you. We also see it on races like the Spi Ouest France, there are only 400 boats left and the registration list is open until the last minute. Not long ago, if you weren't registered for the Boat Show, there was no more space.
In your opinion, the Figaro 3 is a good evolution for the class?
I think that this boat will be of service to the younger generation of today, because we have gone from the Figaro 2 - which was a pretty sailboat, but which was only a production boat with which we were racing - to a slightly more sophisticated and complex boat: foils, asymmetrical spis, a gennaker. We have a VMG in the meadow that is 100° from one edge to the other, it involves more complex trajectory problems: when you choose one edge, you don't choose the other. The same goes for the downwind, we don't go down well downwind, so it forces us to make strategic choices. This is a good development.
I hear that some people find the physical boat, which is "just" 3.6 tons/metre. When they go on an IMOCA that is 10 times stiffer on the canvas, they will understand what it is like to tuck a sail in. It'll calm them down. And when it comes to checking out 500 kg of bazaar plus 500 kg of sail, they'll miss the 100 kg we're riding in a Figaro.
Concerning the foils, we have known from the beginning that in light airs, they will not be of much use. It's confirmed, but we all have the same ones. In the breeze it's a little faster. We have overcome the problem of light airs with a much larger spinnaker, we have almost 50% more. Some at first walk a little on their shoelaces - and sometimes continue. I reused the system I had in 1991 on my Mini: one end continuous around the luff. When I sink, I drop the tack, I pull on it and as long as I don't have the tack, I don't sink the spinnaker: it's called the Mich' Line. It's not something suitable for large boats, but it works very well on a boat of this size. That's also why it's useful to have a little experience.
You didn't have much time to prepare your boats and train, how did you focus this preparation?
I did all the preparation of my boat, and as you can see there's not much, just a few canvases to mate. At the training centre, I looked at the problems that others had and corrected them before I experienced them. It saved me a little time. Then I sailed as soon as I could. I would have liked to sail more, but I have another job next door. The schedule for the start of the season was dense, but it was for everyone.
The order of delivery of the boats was logical and respectable: it was the order of order.
I had my boat 20 days after the first ones, but that's the rule of the game. If you don't like it, there's something else you can do.
Today I have a boat that works, I know what can break and how not to break it. I even managed to make my own little underwater camera system.
What is your goal for this race?
This is my 13 e pavilion Z participation, my worst result was 12, if I could stop at 13 it would suit me very well and if I am offered better I sign right away.
What will your program be after this Solitaire?
The season will end. Even though I've never been to Horta[Editor's note: Douarnenez-Horta] and I would have liked to - usually if you stop at Horta in offshore racing, it's because you're in trouble. But I have an IMOCA under construction for Nicolas Troussel, so I'm expected. So I'm only doing the Solitaire du Figaro. I made the Solo Master Rooster to play a little. I couldn't do the Sardinha because I didn't have a sponsor yet and with the uncertainties on the spreaders I couldn't afford to lose a mast.
How do you organize yourself in terms of your diet during the race?
Most of my food is there. I add 2 sandwiches the morning of departure. The stove is mandatory, but I don't use it. I don't eat freeze-dried food, I don't understand the concept, you have to prepare it and you really have something else to do than heat water. Especially since the quantity of water is limited. I prefer to bring only things that are already ready: tabbouleh, dried meats, dried fruits and the self-heating food system. You put the food and water in the bag, it makes bubbles, and you get it back 10 minutes later it's ready and hot without bothering yourself with a jetboil.
