As he prepares to take the start of the Route du Rhum on November 6, 2022, Roland Jourdain invited us on board for a navigation on WeExplore, his catamaran built by the Outremer shipyard using biomaterials and numerous evolutions to limit the environmental impact of the boat . He talks to us about this project and the future of his multihull.
How do you manage to get back into the Route du Rhum, in the Rhum Multi category, after having won it twice? How was this boat born?
This boat is a baby covid. When we were all locked up, we had the time to think and the desire to go further on bio-materials. They've been around for a while, and this boat is one more proof of concept. But they are only part of the solution. The technologies will help us, but if there is no change in usage, it's a shot in the dark.
I have won the Route du Rhum twice and so I have made my step aside. I want to show my contradictions and my schizophrenia. In the morning, I get up thinking about performance and boat speed and half an hour later, I think about sobriety and making a reasonable project. We must show that environmental performance is the real issue in our field.
How do you see the race and your chances in the Rhum Multi?
I know I have a good one! My Outremer may be 13 tons, or 5 less than the standard one, but we'll still be much heavier than Loïc's or Brieuc's TS and Marco's catamaran (Guillemot); as for Philou (Philippe Poupon), we don't know where to put him. Even with 2 reefs and the staysail, it takes us several days.
How do you prepare a project like WeExplore compared to a classic ocean racing project?
The project is above all focused on limiting the impact, whatever it is. We use recycled material, outdated carbon from Airbus, and we re-cut old sails from before. For example, on our main sail, we recovered old batten boxes from another boat. It took a lot of time. But for all that, we must continue to ward off all dangers. The objective remains to go to the other side.
How do suppliers react to requests for reuse?
Overall very good. These issues are a two-way street. If the customer has a pure racing objective, the supplier responds racing. But if the customer leaves the door open, we think together. We have suppliers who naturally come to us for this. In the end, there are more habitual locks than technical ones. If we take stock, we spend more time convincing people to take the time to think about it than we do solving the technical problems.
What is the future of the boat after the Route du Rhum?
For the moment, it is an empty platform. The boat belongs to Kaïros, which is making it available to the WeExplore Foundation. It can be used as a support for exploration, for events, with sponsoring and patronage to amortize the boat. It is a support for reflection on the future, to integrate low-tech solutions. We can imagine kits to be adapted to boats in the future.
