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Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Morgan Lagravière will start the Transat Saint-Barth – Port-la-Forêt race
Morgan Lagravière has confirmed he will take part in the Transat Saint- Barth –Port-la-Forêt, which starts on December 6, on the IMOCA Adopteunskipper.net, an old generation monohull rented for the race. The crewed delivery of the boat to St Barts was good training for the young sailor before he takes on his first solo Atlantic crossing.
Despite his disappointment after being forced to abandon in the Transat Jacques Vabre, Morgan Lagravière has bounced back to focus on his primary goal of being ready for the next Vendée Globe, which starts in less than a year from Les Sables d'Olonne. While the monohull Safran is landlocked for essential work in the boatyard, the young skipper decided to continue his training on the monohull, Adopteunskipper.net, lining up the Transat Saint-Barth - Port-la-Forêt, a qualification race for the solo round-the-world race, after doing the delivery to St-Bart’s with an experienced crew. The young sailor completed the training run Atlantic crossing of over 3,000 miles from La Trinité-sur-Mer to St-Bart’s, with Roland Jourdain, Nicolas Lunven and Gildas Mahé. “The delivery was a great experience,” Lagravière said after arriving last Saturday. “We had lively conditions at the start, with three days of upwind in strong winds, but then flew in the trade winds on a direct route. What bliss. I got the feel of the boat and its idiosyncrasies and I am starting to have a good handle on it. The four of us talked a lot. “Bilou” (Roland Jourdain) shared his incredible experience, his stories of the things he has been through and how he organises himself on board. It was very rewarding. I made this crossing with a crew, but I have confidence in my ability to sail alone.”
0ualifying Vendee Globe
The Transat Saint-Barth - Port-la-Forêt will be the first solo race at the helm of an IMOCA 60 for Morgan Lagravière. “I’m feeling calm about this transatlantic race because the boat is reliable and adaptable,” Lagravière said. “I needed to regain some confidence, this is now done. I have no pressure about the result. I’ll start quietly and push harder gradually, because I know I’m going to get into the heat of the race. My goal is to finish and confirm my qualification for the Vendée Globe.” In order to be on the start line of the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe, competitors are required to participate in a transoceanic race of over 2,500 miles on an IMOCA 60.
The Atlantic West to East
The Transat Saint-Barth – Port-la-Forêt (formerly the BtoB) will leave the port of Gustavia, on the island of St-Bart’s, on Sunday, December 6, at 1100hrs local time (1600hrs in France). Eight participants, including Yann Eliès (Quéguiner – Leucémie Espoir), Paul Meilhat (SMA) and Sébastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild), will start this 3,000-mile Transat. With strong downwinds and big seas, in the Atlantic at this time of the year conditions are often lively: it will provide a great training run of around twelve days for Lagravière, with the finished expected to be between December 16 and 20 in Port-la-Forêt in Brittany.
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