From Optimist to Vendée Globe
It was while cruising with his father in Les Sables-d'Olonne that Sébastien Simon discovered sailing, before launching himself into competition later on. He was 12 years old, and decided to participate in the National Optimist euros Small Boat which took place at home. The mayonnaise takes.
This was followed by regattas in 420, J80, M34 before winning the selection for the Challenge Espoir Bretagne Crédit Mutuel.
"In parallel to sailing, I was studying structural and composite engineering in Bordeaux. I was doing a work-study program at Yves Parlier. I was managing the traction of boats by kite in order to reduce greenhouse gases. In 2013, I decided to quit my job to join the Challenge Espoir Bretagne Crédit Mutuel."
And Sébastien had a good nose for it because at 23 years old, he has put his foot down in the demanding Figaro circuit! "I was lucky to win this selection."
After 5 great years within the CMB Bretagne network, a victory in the Solitaire du Figaro 2018 and a title of French Elite Ocean Racing Champion the same year, the young skipper dreams of the Vendée Globe.
Arkea, one of Sébastien's partners, is following him on this project and will soon be joined by Paprec. "I met Sebastien Petithuguenin, (Editor's note: son of Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, President and founder of the Paprec group) who wanted to launch a Solitaire du Figaro project for his 40th birthday. The feeling went well and our partnership was born like that."
Read " Iodized memories of a skipper with Sébastien Simon "
The birth of the IMOCA Arkea-Paprec
Arkea-Paprec is the second new generation IMOCA to be launched, almost a year after Charal. In total, between 2019 and 2020, 7 new generation boats will have been launched . "It's pretty exciting the launch of all these new boats. In total, 4 different architects will be behind these new foilers. Arkea-Paprec is the first Kouyoumdjian design, the second Corum, will be launched in 2020."
To design his boat, Sébastien was able to rely on the experience of Vincent Riou euros, his technical director, but also on his feedback from sailing PRB (Vincent Riou's ex-IMOCA, now skippered by Kevin Escoffier).
Thus, he was a force of proposal for the design of the cockpit and actively participated in the assembly of the boat, carried out within Vincent's structure in Port-La-Forêt.
"I was completely part of the construction of the boat. It was a real opportunity to work on the assembly. In particular, I was able to learn about composite and become autonomous in this technique."
A long optimization process
Arkea-Paprec required a long optimization work both on stability euros by working on the hull shapes euros and on the center of gravity euros with a mast implanted lower than the others.
The cockpit is completely open to allow easy and safe handling of the boat, and can be completely enclosed by tarpaulins in the future. This is a trend that is developing on these new IMOCA boats, like Hugo Boss with a helm station integrated into the heart of the boat or Apivia, whose cockpit can be completely closed. Nowadays, IMOCA boats are sailed in the dry!
Despite this, the skipper of Arkea-Paprec wanted to keep an eye on the outside. "In the cockpit, we can easily get our heads out of the boat to see what's going on around us and have an eye on the sails, which is a critical element."
Even if it is still early to position himself against his competitors, Sébastien invokes the reliability of his boat. "Today, we are more in a phase of optimization than of reliability and that is positive. euros each time we optimize something, we progress and it is always instructive. The advantage is that we have not encountered any structural problems.
Upwind and downwind, the foils work very well. After the Azimuth Challenge, we modified them a 2 e times to make them more versatile. We were aware of the problem with our foils. This allows us to get closer to the version we will use for the Vendée Globe."
euros each time, it is a long work of optimization which awaits the skipper and his team: handling, modification, optimizationeuros "Very large foils are difficult to stabilize. It has a huge impact on the boat's trim and stability and requires a lot of effort. The numerical simulators predicted the flight of the boat, but nobody believed it too much. It's subjected to stresses that we didn't imagine, or didn't anticipate."
These new foilers are demanding and require a long development period. "These boats require a lot of energy, as the Charal technical team confirmed during the Azimuth Challenge. They are just starting to get their heads above water. They take a long time to develop and the races we participate in are very demanding."
However, as the skipper of Arkea Paprec explains, the boats have always required a long time to be fine-tuned. "In the days of centerboard boats, it took that long. It took them at least a year to make a boat reliable. euros each generation of boats, innovation pushes to produce innovative boats, ahead of their time. It will always be like that."
In Jacques Vabre mode
The boat has also been prepared for the Transat Jacques Vabre: stove, bench, card table
"It's coming along bit by bit. It's important because we're going to spend time in these boats. It's got to be a minimum of ergonomic."
The return from the Route du Café will be an opportunity for Sébastien to sail single-handed and determine his needs for the Vendée Globe configuration. On arrival in France, it will then be time for Arkea Paprec to return to the winter yard.
In flight, a gap between the older generations and the foilers
unlike older generation IMOCA boats, Arkea Paprec euros, like these new foilers, has been designed around its foils. Having been able to sail on PRB, Vincent Riou's former IMOCA, equipped with foils in 2018, Sébastien was able to notice differences in performance.
"Arkea is much more structured than PRB, which makes it more solid. We defined the position of the bulkheads according to the foils. Whereas on the old IMOCAs, you had to adapt the foils to the existing structure."
Today, the boats are certainly more powerful, even if sometimes it is still difficult to see the differences in terms of speed, because we are still optimizing. When the foil doesn't work at 100%, it's hard to see the difference, but when it flies, there's a real gap between the different generations of boats."
The podium in the Transat Jacques Vabre
Accustomed to winning, Sébastien is not losing sight of his objectives for this Transat Jacques Vabre 2019. If his heart is set on "the podium for sure" its reason "hopes for a satisfactory and constructive sporting outcome."
If we base ourselves on the results of Charal, the first of the new generation foilers, the development of these ultra technological boats is long. "We hope that there will be at least one new generation boat on the podium. It is sure that Charal is a step ahead of us, but we will deal with it. It's a race that lasts a long time and whose start is given in autumn from Le Havre. It is never easy to get out of the Bay of Biscay. As long as the finish line is not crossed, anything can happen!"
Sébastien is therefore counting on the "extraordinary potential of the boat" and on its willingness to "give it your all and navigate well" to perform.
He will be accompanied by Vincent Riou, who has been with him since the beginning of the project. These two sailors share the same sporting objective and the same desire for performance. Complementary, they will be able to share their skills. "Vincent can help me with certain weather phenomena, like the Doldrums for example. I have never crossed the Atlantic from North to South, but only from East to West."
This choice of co-skipper is also a logical result that is in line with the project. "Vincent took on the technical direction of the Arkea Paprec project and the construction, of which I was a part. It was very exciting! Today, we are still sailing the boat to make it more reliable. It's not an easy and frustrating stage that requires patience. I'd like to get some results right away! Maybe it's also my youth that wants that. But I have to put it into perspective by telling myself that two months ago, the boat was still being built
Serious competitors
The level will be high in the IMOCA fleet, and not only in the new generation boats. "I'm afraid of a lot of them, and not only among the new generation of foilers! They are still great sailors! Nicolas Escoffier, Nicolas Lunveneuros I was training with him and I won the Solitaire du Figaro the same year. There are plenty that I consider dangerous!"
But the strength of Sébastien and Vincent is that they have already sailed together a lot, especially in transatlantic races. "We did the Discovery Route we sailed together in transatlantic races when he installed the foils of PRBeuros"
