Act 2 scene 1
Seahorse: Let’s talk a little about your experiences in the last race in 2014/15. You went into the Dongfeng Chinese- French programme off the back of winning the previous edition with Franck Cammas on Groupama 70. How much of that VO70 project could you take into a new campaign in smaller, less powerful VO65 one-designs? Charles Caudrelier: Groupama was a winning team so of course you learn a lot in a programme like that. No team is ever perfect, though, so I tried to bring all the positive aspects from that campaign and change what I saw as weaknesses. But I obviously cannot do exactly the same – I don’t have the same sailors or the same project; now the boat is a one-design too so I try to find sailors who come from one- design or dinghy backgrounds because it is all about how to make the boat go fast rather than how to design and mode it. SH: In certain conditions you were definitely faster last time… CC: We were strong at the beginning downwind and in light air. I think we had a different way of sailing and trimming sails initially, but afterwards everybody else started using our approach. At the end of the race we were actually not as fast, relatively, but people still thought of us as quick which was good for us! For sure, in light conditions we were always quite good, but equally in strong winds and above a certain boat speed we were a bit slower than some others. The interesting thing of course is that at
the time many people thought it was the boat making the difference, because when it is one-design people always blame the boat and not the crew. For us, it was about the way we trimmed the sails and to a lesser extent the boat itself. SH: But were there conditions when you felt other boats did perform better… CC:We had two big problems, one in the
36 SEAHORSE
south and one at the end of the trans - atlantic leg into Lisbon. Other teams performed better than us – but we now know why and it is not a big issue. We have found the solution so we feel much stronger than two years ago. SH:Where was race winner Abu Dhabi especially strong? CC: They had a lot of previous Volvo experience. It was the third campaign for Ian Walker and the second with Abu Dhabi. They started training very early, with strong sailors with lots of experience – much more than us. They had good drivers, good trimmers and they managed their boat well. They did not take many risks, they kept out of trouble and let expe- rience and practice do the job for them. We spent a lot of time at the beginning
teaching our Chinese sailors instead of working on speed. Even if the difference was not big at the start of the race and we
were leading sometimes, Ian’s team always came out ahead because they never had any problems. We took more risks and some- times that led to problems; but sometimes we had to. Abu Dhabi always had pressure on them but they stayed consistent. SH:How much is VO65 speed about rig tune versus sail and hull trim? CC: It’s complicated! Sail trimming, for sure, is number one as we all have the same boat and the same sails so this makes a big difference. The weight issue is less obvious; it’s difficult to know when to add weight for power or to sail light. It’s a call we have to make at the beginning of each leg depending on the forecast. But this is the only major choice to make before each leg – after that it’s just about the guys onboard. This fleet stays closer but a lot still
comes down to going the right way. The differences in speed by the end of the race were so small that the main decider was
BENOIT STICHELBAUT
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
