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Jules Verne Trophy 2008
www.cammas-groupama.com - Übersicht
27.02.2008
Groupama
The adventure continues
Back in France after righting Groupama 3 in the New Zealand port of Dunedin,
eight of the crew of the giant trimaran were in Groupama's press centre in Paris
today to answer questions from journalists and web surfers during today’s press
conference. Extracts from the interviews…
The most important news from this meeting is the confirmation by Groupama’s
Managerial staff that the adventure is continuing. Indeed, the damage suffered
by the giant trimaran is considerable but reparable.
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Foto: www.cammas-groupama.com
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Franck Cammas indicated that Groupama 3 was going to be loaded onto a cargo ship around 13th March with
an arrival at the technical base in Lorient scheduled a month later.
The skipper also specified that the current assessment still hadn’t revealed the
reasons behind the breakage of the float between the forward crossbeam and the
port foil casing: “We’re going to discuss all this with the architects, the yard
and the structural engineers. If this amounts to a design fault, then that means
we were wrong but sailing remains a mechanical sport… We have a working base,
which defines the stresses that the boat should be able to withstand and in the
general project strategy, we never wanted to take risks: we didn’t put any less
carbon in it than for Geronimo! We may have to look at our calculations again
but the concept isn't at fault. The way Groupama 3 handled, its sensations at
the helm, its performance and its Atlantic records confirm that the project is
viable: we want to head back out again next winter with a trimaran, which will
handle in the same type of way, but without any doubts in the back of our minds
about the reliability of the boat…”
Six months’ work
The giant trimaran will therefore go into the yard as soon she returns to
France, but in the meantime, the shore crew is already preparing for the work in
the knowledge that numerous parts of the boat can be recuperated (rudders, deck
hardware, hooks…). The engineers and the designers will also look into means of
consolidating the trimaran: “It will be necessary to rebuild one entire float
and reconstruct the puzzle: a launch at the start of November can be envisaged,
followed by a month of fine tuning and validation for the start of stand-by in
December for the Jules Verne Trophy” detailed Franck Cammas.
Jan Dekker went directly home to South Africa, whilst Loïc Le Mignon remained in
Dunedin (New Zealand) to monitor the loading of the giant trimaran onto the
cargo ship with two members of the shore crew from Lorient, Olivier Mainguy and
Jean-Marc Normant, who came out to join him,. The eight other crew are already
in the process of preparing for new competitions with the Spi Ouest France
competition looming for one designs, sports catamarans…
The circumnavigation
The reference time
*Jules Verne Trophy: 50d 16h 20’ (Orange II in 2005)
*Ushant-equator: 6d 6h 24’ (Groupama 3 in 2008)
*Ushant-Agulhas Cape: 13d 08h 47’ (Groupama 3 in 2008)
*Ushant-Cape Leeuwin: 21d 02h 00’ (Groupama 3 in 2008)
*Ushant-Tasmania: 22d 20h 53’ (Groupama 3 in 2008)
Interview with Franck Cammas, skipper
"The weather didn't spoil us and I hope the Deep South isn't like that all the
time! We had a lot of messy seas, which was painful for the boat and the men
alike… We also had to extend our course to remain to the North of the lows and
we were blocked for a long time by a front which wasn't making headway: in the
end we had just one good day in the whole of the Indian Ocean! Even that was
still behind a low, in SW’ly winds. From New Zealand we had just started to find
more favourable seas and winds…”
Interview with Franck Proffit, watch leader
“The story ended very radically whilst we were still inside the round the world
record time. Despite difficult weather, we got off to a great start, but the
conditions weren’t in our favour, especially in the Indian Ocean. The boat is
exceptional. It’s very quick, with a fabulous crew and the alchemy was positive
for producing a great performance…”
Interview with Steve Ravussin, watch leader
“Going as fast as this for so long is something I’ve never done! It’s a fairly
stressful pace when you're down below but we never pushed the boat too far in my
view. Unfortunately, the seas were often very difficult…”
Interview with Sébastien Audigane, helmsman
“Groupama 3 is a very, very, very quick boat! Of course, in big seas, Orange II
was more pleasant but the trimaran's potential is remarkable and things should
go well next winter…”
Interview with Frédéric Le Peutrec, helmsman
“Between Club Med and Groupama 3, which are of a similar length, the trimaran is
a lot faster and has much greater potential! Orange II is at the other end of
the scale and passes better through the water, but that’s not enough… This type
of boat requires a lot of concentration and selflessness, but we never
experienced the kind of stress you can encounter sailing single-handed on a 60
foot trimaran!”
Interview with Ronan Le Goff, bowman
“We all knew at the start of the Jules Verne Trophy that it wouldn’t be easy!
But we’ll make another attempt next year…”
Interview with Jacques Caraës, bowman
“In this type of challenge, it’s the seas which let you past as Francis Joyon
said on his arrival. They didn’t let us past… Groupama 3 has the ability to be
in phase in the transition zones, which is a huge asset in relation to Orange
II. The Indian Ocean is always hard and powerful and we suffered behind a front.
On Orange II though, we didn’t have the sea breeze and the catamaran just
slipped along… I also believe that carbon has a memory and that’s why it broke.”
Interview with Yves Parlier, navigator
“Finding yourself on shore after two hours with this incomplete circumnavigation
is a strange sensation: My head is still in this round the world and my mind is
still thinking about the days which were set to follow, where we were set to
make really good speed at the start of the Pacific Ocean…”
The three watches of a circumnavigation
The crew of Groupama 3
Franck Cammas: skipper & watch leader 1
Franck Proffit: watch leader 2
Steve Ravussin: watch leader 3
Yves Parlier: navigator
Sébastien Audigane: 2nd helm
Loïc Le Mignon: 2nd helm
Frédéric Le Peutrec: 2nd helm
Jan Dekker: bowman
Ronan Le Goff: bowman
Jacques Caraës: bowman
--
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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