Act 2 Scene 2. Renamed Banque Populaire VII, Cammas’s big tri was next used by Armel Le Cléac’h for a series of record attempts culminating in the 2014 Route du Rhum – the goal to repeat Cammas’s win in 2010. But an accident ashore saw Le Cléac’h replaced at the last minute by Loïck Peyron (above) – who’d stepped away from racing big tris offshore after the traumatic loss of his Orma Fujicolor in the 2002 edition. But once learnt never forgotten… Peyron won the race outright and set a new course record on the way
focus from the helmsman – those were the first impressions of a crew that had become the first to sail from New York to the Lizard in under 100 hours. That agility and capacity to accelerate
much better than the big ‘trucks’ (as Hervé Jan used to call the likes of Club Med) were confirmed during the transition phases in the first Jules Verne, notably in the Doldrums – no surprise there. Yet there was still a dark cloud of anxiety on the designer’s mind as Cammas’s men entered the Southern Ocean. ‘But we were pleasantly surprised, as average speeds were high and the guys did not seem to be or feel on the edge… ‘Disaster struck a bit later, as we know,
when the port float broke and the boat capsized. Fortunately, having remained far north, the incident happened some 75 miles off New Zealand and the boat (and crew!) was quickly recovered. Had it occurred 1,000 miles further on it would have been catastrophic. ‘That episode especially led us to really
doubt our calculations, and the outside expert appointed to assess the situation concluded that this boat was not fit to go around the world… to which Cammas and Guilbaud replied, “It’s still on our pro- gramme, and that’s what we’ll do.” And, as we know, Franck had his sponsor’s
38 SEAHORSE
unwavering trust, so his advice prevailed and the decision to carry on was taken rather swiftly. ‘A lot of people kept on saying it
wouldn’t work, and that’s not a very com- fortable position to be in, especially after such a close call. But we went back on the warpath. One thing we had learnt was that pre-loading the platform by really crank- ing the shrouds was a key performance factor, but then on the next Jules Verne attempt in the South Atlantic a bout of severe weather took its toll and a crack appeared in the aft beam – a type of failure that we had not seen before. ‘The crew had to pull into Cape Town,
fix the boat and Fréd Le Peutrec brought her back to Brittany. They set off again in January, that same winter, and you know the rest: Groupama 3 became the new Jules Verne record holder, setting the bar at 48 days. From then onwards there was no stopping that boat.’ That same year the giant underwent an
adaptation phase to be fit for a soloist to race, with only a few months between the end of her RTW record and the start of the Route du Rhum. In typical Groupama Team fashion, everything had already been planned well in advance and Franck had factored in training sessions during which his crew would simply be aboard to
observe and assess the project’s feasibility. ‘Now we really needed to save weight,’
recalls Vincent. ‘The boat was fitted out for 10 guys and a planetary lap, a lot of stuff was unnecessary in Rhum configura- tion.’ And, of course, the biggest impact on overall mass was the adoption of a shorter mast, leading to an associated reduction of weight in the sail wardrobe as well. ‘From 18.5 tonnes we ended up with
16 tonnes, with a big advantage in terms of righting moment: Groupama 3 was at 165-tonne-metres, compared with Coville’s 100-footer Sodebo and Joyon’s Idecwhich that year were at 115 or 120. ‘Something like 30-40 per cent of extra
power, but on a boat that was certainly more challenging to handle than the oppo- sition.’ (ed: we also remember bike-driven winches first appearing in Groupama’s cockpit just before the Rhum). Franck’s belief was that if conditions
were favourable and he did not have to manoeuvre too much – which would prove physically too taxing – then he stood a good chance singlehanded, since the tri- maran’s speed potential was undeniable. He knew it was a bit of a gamble, and therefore was also mentally prepared to encounter too high a mountain should the weather decide to throw a tantrum or turn the course into a gybe fest. ‘At the time it
w
CHRISTOPHE LAUNAY/DPPI
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