19.01.2010
A new period of stand-by for Groupama 3 and the Jules Verne Trophy
After three weeks sailing off Lorient designed to validate the completion of
work carried out since her South African stopover in December, the maxi
trimaran Groupama 3, skippered by Franck Cammas, is today beginning a
stand-by period for a fresh attempt at conquering the Jules Verne Trophy.
Ready to get down to work since 29th December, the date of her return from
South Africa, the technical crew from Team Groupama, assisted by employees
from the Multiplast and Gépéto yard, have now completed the reinforcement
work, most of which has been performed on the aft sections of the floats:
“Despite the highly unfavourable weather conditions, the work necessary to
repair Groupama 3 and make her reliable have been completed. The three test
sails offshore of Lorient have enabled the crew to really push the boat to
ensure that everything’s working as it should” confides Stéphane Guilbaud,
team manager.
“It doesn’t happen very often that we end up working in the snow or in
temperatures of less than 0°. We had to install some heaters and covers to
respect the specifications inherent in working with carbon material. All
this was done whilst Groupama 3 was on the water and the schedule was fairly
tight so as not to risk missing a favourable weather window for setting out
on the Jules Verne” adds Pierre Tissier, technical manager.
As regards the crew, although navigator Stan Honey is at home in San
Francisco and Ronan Le Goff is in Brazil, the eight remaining sailors are
present on site at varying degrees. Franck Cammas, Fred Le Peutrec and Loïc
Le Mignon are there on a daily basis, Lionel Lemonchois, Thomas Coville,
Jacques Caraës and Stève Ravussin are available for the sailing, whilst
Bruno Jeanjean is monitoring the preparation of Port de Palavs Les Flots, of
which he is the captain.
However, despite being geographically divided, the crew remain focused on
the same objective: “We’re itching to get back out to sea, to get back
together again and experience the same passion for the sea and speed. You
tend to forget sometimes, but our past experiences have made us stronger.
We know each other well and we like sailing on Groupama 3. She’s a very fine
boat. It’s up to us to maintain her so that we can get right the way around,
without any major problems” continues Fred Le Peutrec.
As to whether or not the crew trust in her reliability, Franck Cammas
assesses the situation simply: “Groupama 3 has never been as solid as she is
today. That clearly isn’t a performance bond as she’s a prototype, but we’ve
done everything we can to ensure she is capable of getting us safely back to
port. It’s up to us to find the right pace and some acceptable weather
conditions, even though it’s evident that on a round the world we’ll have to
tackle some bad weather. This is as much the difficulty of the Jules Verne
Trophy as the appeal”.
What remains now is to find out if a favourable weather window will enable
Groupama 3 to set off on her third attempt to conquer the Jules Verne
Trophy: “We’re giving ourselves until 5th February to set off. Beyond that
date, we’ll have to give up our stand-by for two reasons: the first is that
it will become very risky to sail in the Southern Ocean, because the summer
in the Southern hemisphere will be over, resulting in violent winds, longer
nights and numerous icebergs. The second reason is related to the fact that
we have to kit Groupama 3 out for ‘Solo’ mode with a view to competing in
the Route du Rhum. She will have to be ready from the month of June in order
for me to train under good conditions” continues Franck Cammas.
As was the case during the last attempt, it’s Sylvain Mondon from Météo
France who’s in charge of carefully studying how the weather evolves. He
exchanges information on a daily basis with Stan Honey, the navigator, and
Franck Cammas. The big question now is how good a weather window is required
for us to set off: “Obviously we’re more demanding at the start of stand-by
than at the end, given that it’s difficult to predict the evolution in the
weather for more than seven days. However, we’re also aware that, in order
to stand a chance of beating Bruno Peyron’s record (50 days), we mustn’t set
out at any cost” concludes the skipper of Groupama 3 from his base in
Lorient.
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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