Vendée Globe

Roland Jourdain’s monohull, Veolia Environnement was relaunched this Wednesday lunchtime after a five-week refit. A general check-up with the Vendée Globe in mind, for, with six months to go before the start, the countdown has well and truly begun and the team is already in racing mode.

Ten days ago, Roland Jourdain was strolling up and down the pontoons in Plymouth, on the eve of the start of the transatlantic race, feeling a bit emotional seeing the race competitors busy working on the final preparations before the start… Unable to compete in the Transat after dismasting in the Barcelona World Race, Bilou felt somewhat out of place. Everything should return to normal today: Veolia Environnement is back in the water and her skipper is there too.

Time for some sailing
The refit is over, and now it’s time for some sailing… With the red Veolia in front of them, the whole team turned up today at noon to relaunch the 60-foot monohull. Freshly painted, fitted with a new engine, improved rudder system, and a new mast strengthened at the base and due to be stepped late this afternoon in Port La Forêt… While the boat is already largely in Vendée Globe mode, there are still a few details for the team to check over in the next two months with the first sailing sessions planned for Friday, if the wind permits… Roland Jourdain : «What happens in the Vendée Globe depends largely on what we do now. I must not be in too much of a hurry, as we have just completed the final major overhaul before we face the month of November. We’re already racing in many ways and what we do now will have repercussions in six months. We must not forget that. We’re already doing the vital bits! In the end, the hardest part was waiting for the boat to return from Australia. In general, during the refit, we kept to schedule. Everything that needed to be X-rayed and thoroughly checked was… It was in fact during this that we discovered a small crack in the ball at the base of the mast. So it was well worth examining that closely. As for the rudders, we took everything apart to fine-tune the system. This is an area, where we wanted to be extremely cautious, so we were very thorough in our investigations. Meanwhile, I took advantage of that to study all the new versions of the navigational software to master them, while also beginning my physical preparation by following the advice of a coach, who gave me my instructions.»

With the Vendée Globe in his sights…
While the Vendée Globe will be the only race for Roland this year, this does not mean the programme for 2008 is a light one for Veolia Environnement. On the contrary, the timing is going to be very tight over the next few months with a series of training trips, meetings determined by the calendar and the all-important 1500-mile qualifying passage, which Roland will have to complete before 1st July to validate his new mast.

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