Kito de Pavant has a sense of humour. When naming the monohull displaying the colours of the French cheese maker, Groupe Bel, he came up with a great name: «She is called Cochise or Cowcheese! She comes from the Italian yard, Indiana Yachting and I was looking for an Indian name… It sounds appropriate in English too! »
Marc Guillemot (Safran) has already been looking closely at the weather models for the first few days of racing and in particular the crossing of the Bay of Biscay: «I'm not feeling that worried. I live each day as it comes. Apart from working on the weather, I'll be trying to relax a little; it feels like the start now and as I have a great team that has worked so well on the boat, I feel serene, so there are no worries in that area. As far as the weather is concerned, we really got to the heart of the matter a few days ago. In theory, we'll be setting out sailing upwind with some rough seas and it's going to be wet. They are not necessarily the favourite conditions for sailors, but if that's what we get, we'll deal with it! »
Guy Cotten, who is supplying the clothes for several of the competitors, has come up with a fleece jacket, which offers anti-seasickness properties. A membrane reduces the balance problems caused by the inner ear, which lead to seasickness. This material has already been successfully used by people suffering from problems of balance…
The pilot of Brit Air is already on the runway! While no airline companies fly from Les Sables d’Olonne to Les Sables d’Olonne, Armel Le Cléac’h knows what to expect on the landing strip off Cape Horn… «I'm setting out as if this was a marathon. I've never been further south than Salvador de Bahia and that does worry me somewhat… When I round the Horn, there will still be a long way to go! There will still be thirty days of racing: the seas can be tough on this final stretch, and the boat and sailor will be tired, and if there is pressure from several boats sailing in close contact… »
Returning ashore in a RIB, while the members of his team were carrying out sea trials on VM Matériaux, Jean le Cam willingly took part in a press conference late this morning in the Vendée Globe Village.
The skipper of the pink boat looked relaxed, and as always was ready to come up with some little pearls of wisdom, but above all was really looking forward to lining up for the start of the race, which he finished as runner-up in back in 2004, a little under seven hours after the winner, Vincent Riou. Here are some extracts…
State of mind: «We are trying to remain serene and keeps things in perspective. It's a boat race with a start line and a finish line. You just have to go as quickly as possible between the two.»
The preparation of the boat: «In her original format - under the name of Bonduelle, the boat was launched back in 2004 -,there only remains the hull, boom, daggerboards, winches and hydraulic jacks. (…) We're limited in what we can do by time, as there are always things being developed. We're always kept busy. It takes the start of a race to stop us in our tracks, otherwise it would be never-ending.»
The fleet: «It's a great line-up offering unprecedented quality. It's very exciting and motivating for sailing in general.»
Race time: «We should be doing it in around eighty days, in any case, if we consider that we can go eight to nine percent faster than in the last Vendée Globe. When you know what we know and see what we see… we should be able to do it.»
Speed: «The hassles are the square of the speed. A collision at twelve knots, means a collision that is 40% harder than one at ten knots. If you go quickly, it is never risk-free, especially as the sea is something you can't change.»
Retirals: «There is always 40% of wastage. If we are in the normal average, there should be around 60% of the boats finishing. That's based on the statistics of recent years.»
Jean Le Cam, the comeback: «The last Vendée Globe wasn't a failure, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not in it for revenge. There's not a feeling of the need to finish something. This is a new story with different people taking part, a route that is bound to be different, with all the mystery that that entails. There's no bitterness. I'm back above all, because I enjoy the race.»
Jean Le Cam concluded his conference by announcing that he wishes to build a new boat for the next edition of the Vendée Globe, which ideally would be launched in 2011.
The gathering in Les Sables d’Olonne is also an occasion for a lot of racers to come from the Mini Transat, Figaro, match-racing, Olympic sailing, cruising, multihulls and records, to say goodbye to the solo yachtsmen taking part in the Vendée Globe and to get a good look at the deepest secrets of the monohulls. Thomas Coville, waiting for a weather opportunity to attempt the solo round the world record, Lionel Lemonchois back from his campaign, where he grabbed seven records, including the New York-San Francisco, San Francisco-Yokohama and Hong Kong-London, Anne Liardet a competitor in the 2004-2005 Vendée Globe, the Hungarian yachtsman, Nandor Fa, whose boat was bought by Raphaël Dinelli, Halvard Mabire after his success in Class’40 in the Quebec-Saint Malo… have all strolled along the pontoons in Port Olona and visited some of the thirty Imoca monohulls.
