A world tour in reverse
122 days and 14 hours, this is the current record for the round-the-world trip in reverse, held by Jean Luc Van Heede since 2004. A circumnavigation of 34,000 miles, achieved to date by only 5 sailors, and carried out by VDH alone on his famous Adrien.
It is on this record that the navigator Romain Pilliard will set off, on his 23 m trimaran Use It Again! (Ellen MacArthur's former boat). The skipper wears the colors of the circular economy (Reduce - Reuse euros Recycle) and bought this boat in 2016, minimizing the impact of its refit on the environment.
"The philosophy of the record upside down, in relation to that of our circular economy project makes perfect sense. Turning things upside down to turn things right side up. It's quite an interesting symbolism. There will be a real reflection behind, linked to the awareness of the population.
This choice of record makes sense. I wouldn't have tackled a Jules Verne Trophy with my boat. It's not our positioning anyway."
A record in doubles
For this record, Romain is associated with the experienced Alex Pella, whereas the sailors who have previously attempted it were solo. He explains this choice for two reasons.
"This is the most demanding and probably the most difficult record in the world, unbeaten since 2004. In multihulls, it has never been done before. Going double-handed is a guarantee of safety. Even if my boat is reliable, robust and has never suffered any major damage. She's as old as she is, but I'm not looking for ultra performance. In the 2018 Route du Rhum, I finished 4th despite my large batch of damage.
In this space of reliability, safety is important and the choice of the double makes sense. I have never sailed around the world. Even if I know my boat well, it's still a multihull, it can turn over.
There will be sensitive points, notably the bypass of the South American peninsula, Cape Horn. It is a complicated passage. There may be days of waiting if the conditions are not mild and it's less dangerous to wait double-handed than solo, especially in these conditions."
"Alex Pella is an experienced person, much more so than me."
A construction site with the least possible impact
To leave, the boat was revised from top to bottom, but in a reasonable way.
"It's the whole philosophy of Use It Again! to have as little impact as possible. We're not into innovation. I'm not going to equip my boat with foils, spend money on carbon. The idea is not to reach the level of the latest boats. My boat is reliable and performs well enough to beat the round-the-world record in reverse."
Romain is leaving without new sails, preferring to reuse, re-cut and re-adapt old sails to his boat. The skipper is taking on board some extra equipment compared to the Route du Rhum, but no innovations or new elements.
Realize the first global ocean sound mapping
During his round-the-world trip, Romain will work in collaboration with scientists to bring them information on noise pollution and underwater sound life, thanks to very long range microphones.
"I'm going to go through places that are not very busy and record both the traffic noise that disturbs the cetaceans, but also record the sounds of the cetaceans that I'm going to come across. It's really interesting. It will be the first world recording. Oceanographic campaigns are very expensive and if I can help science, it's great. It's in line with the Use It Again campaign. It's pretty unprecedented."
122 days, the record to beat
It is difficult to estimate the time spent around the world for this attempt. If Romain hopes to beat the record by a week or two, he especially wants to finish this round the world trip in the opposite direction.
"In 122 days, there can be a lot of ups and downs. We can gain one or two weeks if everything goes well. But if we are stopped at Cape Horn, it changes the game. We have the right boat for this project, which represents a good compromise between reliability and speed. On a classic round-the-world race, the weather systems follow one another. We can have an overview. It's feasible to beat the record, but we'll see.
The important thing is to finish first. There are few people who sail for 4 full months. A Jules Verne is 41 days, but this round-the-world trip is three times longer. There is this dimension of wanting to spend time at sea and share this adventure."
He will be accompanied in this adventure by the router Christian Dumard.
"There is both the sporting dimension for the record and the sharing dimension of the adventure. We will be able to talk about our topics of circular economy and ocean protection. Thanks to this project, we will reach many people. It will advance the fight against global warming. I'm proud to put this together."
