Vendée Globe

The new Akéna Vérandas monohull (ex PRB) was put back in the water yesterday morning in Port La Forêt in SW Brittany and will be out sailing today in her new colours. Arnaud Boissières will be setting out on the SNSM record with Vincent Riou and seven other crewmen on Sunday, before training with BT next week.

After almost three months of work, carried out by the shore teams of PRB and Akena Vérandas, the new Akena Vérandas was put back in the water yesterday without any problems. Arnaud was alongside Vincent Riou and around ten other people from the PRB and Akena teams. Arnaud Boissières: "Everyone worked hand in hand. For my team and for myself, this represents our new project and quite naturally the motivation is very strong. But I felt that the same was true of Vincent and his shore team too. I'd like to thank them and the CDK yard, as they all showed total commitment."

Today (Wednesday), the new Akena Vérandas will therefore be out sailing for the first time. Vincent, who is to be Arnaud's fellow crewman for this season (in particular in the Transat Jacques Vabre), will be on board alongside some of the shore team. For "Cali", the main goal now is to get to know his machine and to check out all the choices made during this refit. The best way of doing that is to take her out racing. That is due to happen on Sunday, when the boat will take part in her first race in the colours of Akena Vérandas: the SNSM record. For this event, the duo of Boissières / Riou will be accompanied by six crewmen, including Jean Le Cam, Jean Philippe Chomette, Antoine Le Braz, member of the PRB shore team, Guillaume Le Fur, project leader with Akena Vérandas, Marianne Moullec, another member of Arnaud's team, as well as Jean-Marc Failler, the rigger for PRB.

The fifth edition of the SNSM record will see the boats sail on a course between Saint Nazaire / Bénodet / Saint Nazaire. They are due to complete the race on Tuesday evening.
 

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