Wing and wing – Jean-Baptiste Daramy finishes 8th overall in the Mini Transat on his Etienne Bertrand-designed Proto Chocolats Paries. The little-known Bertrand has really made his mark in the Minis this year, especially with his very fast female-moulded Ofcet650 Series design which is marketed by builder Chantier Hervé in both mid-tech and high tech construction to suit the budget
‘We connect twice a day, or more when needed. In the Doldrums it’s much more often but sometimes there’s nothing to say. In the last Jules Verne (with BP V), I only called up the boat twice in 45 days’.
Marcel loves routeing: ‘There is just you on the land and a blank sheet of paper… It’s a gigantic game of chess. It’s fascinating to work through all the possibilities and when you get a good result it’s very satisfying.
‘You start off with general ideas. You work on them and gradually build up your route… Often in this type of attempt there are two or three key moments. If you identify them in time and deal with them, you can do it.
‘One of the two calls I made to Loïck during the last Jules Verne concerned the route under Australia. By changing the sea state parameters ever so slightly, I could see there was a way through in the south. Loïck thought I had gone crazy, telling me there was already a 10m swell. But if they had followed the initial northern route, they would have ended up close-hauled. ‘I said to him: “Think back to when we were youngsters and looked for a heavy swell. It’s impressive, but it’s not dangerous. You will find it tough for 12 hours, but you will make a huge gain.” ‘That is exactly what happened. I love analysing the weather on that scale. And as I have raced around the world five times myself I can usually easily imagine what it is like onboard. Maybe it’s really not so different...’
‘I’ve never pushed myself so close to the edge’ Arriving at dawn in Guadeloupe, the 31-year-old skipper of Nautipark finished as the unchallenged winner of the latest Mini Transat. Despite a brief unscheduled stop off St François, following a ‘meeting’ with a trawler line, Frédéric Denis, electronics engineer and professional navigator, was able to take it easy as he approached the finish, nine hours in front of Italian runner-up Michele Zambelli, having averaged more than 10kt since leaving the Canary Islands.
After a brief rest ‘the rookie’ of the Mini was able to tell us about his decisive victory. In contrast to the first leg, the fleet restarted
from the Canaries under spinnaker and were immediately surfing at 15kt in a very confused sea. During the first leg the breeze had increased progressively. In this leg the solo skippers were in the game straight away.
‘It was totally wild… we went out a little too fast to start with,’ said Frédéric. ‘I had a lot of little breakages, but luckily nothing too much… In this race you need a little luck. The night of 2-3 November was decisive. Because I can’t read the instruments without glasses, I can’t steer a very precise course after a certain time at night. So that night I did a lot of sailing on autopilot and for sure the machine was faster than I would have been.
‘With the pilot handling the power and acceleration of the boat nicely, I really increased my small lead. As the breeze built further, I continued with the spinnaker and two reefs in the main. By pushing hard early on I know I smashed the morale of my opponents.’ Frédéric had the advantage of having benefited from the mentoring of Antoine Roux and Gwénolé Gahinet, the two previous owners of his five-year-old Lombard-designed Proto. ‘I really didn’t know the custom boat culture, and they helped me a lot. The aim was to learn with the boat as it was and then steadily improve it. ‘The three of us worked closely with Henri-Paul Schipman from Marc Lombard’s studio, where the boat was designed. They sailed with me on the boat and gave me real-world advice that allowed me to move to a higher level within a very short time.’ The modest Frédéric forgets to mention all the work he had done after his boat was recovered after 15 days’ drifting off the Portuguese coast – when Gahinet had to abandon her following a keel failure in the last race. It took five months to repair and then optimise the boat. ‘One of the best changes we made was to incline the rotation axis of the keel. The Lombard office say that the lift generated by the angled fin has really speeded up the boat downwind.’ Frédéric’s best 24-hour run was 297nm, sailing downwind in fierce trade winds, an average of 12.4kt! (The outright Mini record was set by Bertrand Delesne – 305nm when racing singlehanded from the Azores to Les Sables d’Olonne).
These overpowered light-displacement ‘mini yachts’ are true weapons. Over the whole course Frédéric had sailed 4,020nm in
SEAHORSE 15
CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI
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