Crew Specialist discovers single-handed sailing
Kevin Escoffier is taking part in his first Vendée Globe in 2020. A very quick decision for this specialist in crewed sailing, who has notably taken part in the last two campaigns in the Volvo Ocean Race, as a crew member of the Dongfeng Race Team, led by Charles Caudrelier.
"Twenty years ago, I was apprehensive about the boat in terms of performance. My goal was to sail the most beautiful boats possible and to go as fast as possible. I wasn't necessarily aiming to sail single-handed."
Following the last Volvo 2017-2018, Kevin was contacted by Vincent Riou - former skipper of the boat - who told him that he was on the short list to take the helm of the IMOCA PRB.
"After the Volvo, single-handed sailing started to bug me. It's the flagship discipline of ocean racing and it lets you know what you're worth. In solo sailing, both the failures and successes are due to you. At the end of 2018, I was on the short-list of future skippers of PRB, a week after Jean-Jacques Laurent (CEO of PRB) confirmed that I had been chosen to take over the boat. It went very vite?!"
Kevin Escoffier then has a few months to train before the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race in August 2019.
"That's all I've been thinking about for a year and a half. In an IMOCA project, project management is very important. It's not just about sailing and racing. It's about technical choices, boat management, performance, planning, etc."
The 2020 Vendée Globe, the first single-handed regatta
Almost two years after taking over PRB, Kevin Escoffier will be taking part in his first Vendée Globe, a legendary race.
"The Anglo-Saxons have the America's Cup, the Olympics and the Volvo Ocean Race. In France, there's the Route du Rhum and the Vendée Globe. When you live by the water, you're immersed in those mythical races, you grow up with them."
Although he has 3 round the world voyages in multihulls and 2 round the world voyages in monohulls with stopovers, always with a crew, this desire for single-handed racing is only a year and a half old. So the sailor is inevitably asking himself questions.
"This is going to be my first solo regatta. I have some doubts even if I'm certain about the manoeuvres, about knowing how to move a boat forward. I don't have any big doubts, but I've had to work a lot to catch up on my solo sailing. It wasn't easy, as with the Covid, we've had some transatlantic races cancelled. But I did a return single-handed transatlantic race and I'm now part of the Finistère Ocean Racing Pole. I'm sailing really solo, without performing on board. I'd rather do everything single-handed than surround myself with people who could help me with the little details and performance."
Thanks to his sailing, alone, which allowed him to experiment with solo sailing, Kevin Escoffier discovered the pleasure he could derive from it.
"I've discovered that I'm having a lot of fun, on the Arctic Vendée les Sables-d'Olonne, on the Azimuth Challenge. I hope to take as much pleasure out of the Vendée Globe. I'm surprisingly serene. We took the boat to Les Sables-d'Olonne yesterday and Jean-Jacques was on board. The pressure is slowly building up. The boat is now moored. We may try to sail two or three times, as staying three weeks without sailing and getting off to a good start in solid conditions, as is the case in Autumn, is a lot."
Finish the race to make a nice performance
For this first Vendée Globe, the yachtsman is hoping to have a great race, to be able to enjoy himself and curb his desire to go too fast.
"I'll go to the rhythm of the boat, without overplaying. I'm leaving with the landmarks I've acquired in a year and a half. I hope to have a good race and finish it first to put in a good performance. It's not a lack of ambition. If you sail properly, the result will be at the end. You have to accept losing a few miles on the new boats and take advantage of the strengths of my boat downwind and upwind, on the VMG phases. That's what I've been working on."
The sailor still wants to finish ahead of the older generation boats, and why not ahead of some newer boats, which may be slower or more prone to breakage due to their youth.
"In Port La Forêt, I sail in contact with old generation boats and new foilers. I agree to take a few miles and keep a cool head, not to look for certain speeds that the boat can't do or to overexploit speed. I'm going to go out and look for some knocks to race. The result will do itself, it's going to be a long race. I hope to make my boat go fast, to line up good average speeds without having too much waste. It's not as simple as that. It's a question of dosage. On these boats, every 3 knots of wind, the world changes. The boats are different and need to be fine-tuned and fine-tuned."
IMOCA PRB gets a new lease of life
Since taking over PRB in 2019, the boat has regained her youth. She had been loaned to Sébastien Simon (Editor's note: skipper of the foiler Arkéa Paprec) to serve as a test boat. The IMOCA is a 2009 boat, fitted with foils for Vincent Riou's 2018 Route du Rhum.
"I have no regrets about the boat's preparation and reliability. Since taking her in hand, I have been working on her performance with the means PRB has put at my disposal. It's a boat with a light concept so that she can be handled single-handed, a fine boat. We've made the boat more reliable with the addition of her foils, which are used as a motor.
We worked to reinforce the boat everywhere, we reviewed the ergonomics, the chart table and lengthened the cap to protect ourselves more. We also reworked the sail plan, the boats going faster at certain wind angles and the electronics. The fittings, which are subject to considerable strain, have also been changed.
With the addition of the foils, the older generation of boats lost their reliability. Boats have to endure the higher stresses generated by these appendages, which are a more important source of performance. Ultimately, it's the generation of foils that generates the performance on this generation of boats."
A versatile boat, a skipper who knows the sea
While IMOCA PRB is not the most powerful, it is very versatile and efficient in transition phases. "It is efficient in reaching, thanks to the addition of foils that give it speed. The foils are thin, the hull drags lightly, and he can accept undercover."
Although he has only recently discovered single-handed sailing, Kevin Escoffier has a lot of offshore experience, even though he knows he will be up against some very experienced competitors.
"I know what a boat is. I have a mechanical and technical background, so when I pull hard on the boat, I know where it goes. I've sailed a lot of different types of boats. I know how to find solutions and ways to go fast. With the foils, I know how to set high average speeds so as not to tire the boat. With the Covid, we've run out of sailing time and we're setting off with boats which have never sailed for more than 12 days in a given configuration. We're going to discover things and points of wear and tear that we hadn't identified until now."
A maximum number of navigations to "learn" the solo sailor
Although he is calm in his preparation and in the course of the race, he also knows that the foilers are accelerating very fast and that he will have to be vigilant about breakages.
"If I'm not serene on the race, I won't have any regrets. I've been working for a year and a half with a reliable and ready boat. I lack sailing time, especially in terms of getting to know the solo sailor, but that's the case for everyone.
We're all going to leave on equal terms. To prepare myself, I took part in every possible race, which I finished every time. I took the maximum number of naval hours on PRB.
I tell myself that the Vendée Globe is a regatta like any other. After all, I've taken quite a few regatta starts. In the Volvo, there are nine starts. It's going to be a start like any other, with the same automatisms and I'm going to sail with my strengths and weaknesses.
What is interesting in a race like the Vendée Globe is the difference in profiles. You look at the line-up and everyone has different experiences. There are older skippers with a lot of experience, young people who are good... I come from the crew... There are a lot of different profiles, which adds to the richness, with different ways of sailing, tuning the boat, choosing the trajectories..."
Communicate to thank
If communication has become an integral part of the browser's job, Kevin Escoffier takes full measure of it.
"It's very important to share our race with the public, with our friends and family who are making sacrifices so that we can take the start. Especially with the Covid, it's difficult to share on the village, to show the boats around. So it's even more important to communicate to share our passion with people.
This is also important for the partners. I'm lucky to have a sponsor who is passionate about sailing. This is the 8th e edition of the Vendée Globe on which a boat in PRB's colours will take the start. If they allow me to live from my passion, they too must get something out of it, and that means communication. Sometimes you're tired, but you have to do it, and in 90% of the cases, I do it with pleasure."
His prognosis for the podium of the Vendée Globe??
"Today, for me, the most versatile and accomplished boat is Apivia, skippered by Charlie Dalin. She hasn't had any apparent breakage and when it comes to reliability, that's a fundamental point. Jérémie Beyou has a lot of experience and his boat Charal was launched early. Finally, Alex Thomson has even more experience, he knows how to go fast, with a boat that I really like, as do his foils."
