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London has one too, though high and dry in St James’s Park where the reinforced concrete structure laid down during WW2 to protect the Cabinet War Rooms is too substantial to demolish – the explosives needed would, it has been calculated, also bring down one if not two square miles of prime London real estate. Similarly down the west coast of Brittany sit several million tons of finest German concrete and steel used to shelter the Atlantic U-Boat fleet when back in port for maintenance. Definitely more usefully sited from the sailor’s perspective, Lorient has been very shrewd in taking advantage of what they were left with to create ‘La Base’ – now the capital of French ocean racing with all the big teams and many of their suppliers on site or within easy reach. Worth a visit, ball fans


buyer which helped towards the charter. The money he had from his own sponsor was principally used to equip the boat and my debt at the end of ⇔150,000 was mostly the fee for the charter… It was not the easiest solution because I had to manage every-


thing from start to finish – but I actually enjoyed that. I found a partner for the solo transatlantic, a company that supported me on my first Figaro, but they provided only half the Route du Rhum budget I needed including chartering the boat. So I decided to borrow the rest! I finished the race owing ⇔150,000 but once the boat was later sold at a profit(!!!) I was able to repay my debts. For financial reasons I could not afford to continue to charter this


excellent boat. My victory in the Rhum did not open the doors to new partners. It was not because I did not wish to continue with the Class40! SH: You had also planned to enter the Vendée Globe? YR: At the end of September 2018, shortly before the start of the Route du Rhum, I had a very serious chance at a VG project but it did not come off. So I put an option on an old boat for the race – the old Lombard design of Roland Jourdain. But that didn’t happen either. My option expired in mid-October and it was Conrad Colman who picked up the boat in the end. SH: But you sailed an Imoca last year? YR: Yes, I raced the 2019 season on the 2007 Finot design of Damien Seguin which was originally Marc Thiercelin’s DCNS. Of course we can’t win with this old boat without foils but we can do beautiful things, and Damien (two-times Paralympics gold medallist) also worked hard to adapt the boat to his situation. In the Transat Jacques Vabre we made a good start but we were not very inspired while crossing the Doldrums and it cost us dearly. I am a ‘player’ who likes to make bold moves on the water, but for the time being I realise that I need to be more considered in my choices… SH: What do you think of the foiler generation? YR: The Imoca foilers are great machines but their cost keeps increasing and I am afraid this is unavoidable… I particularly like the concept of Charlie Dalin’s Apivia (winner of the last TJV) but I don’t like her foils. I’m afraid they won’t work so well in big seas because they lack depth. Hugo Boss’s C-foils might be the best, but I think her closed cockpit is too extreme. I prefer the ‘hut’ of Charlie Dalin’s boat. The perfect formula is not around yet. But soon I hope we will see a new generation of foils: more


versatile, deeper, they will be more suitable offshore with better self-regulation for when the boat is flying. A board with a large tip doesn’t seem ideal to me. That said, I’m not an expert.


SH: With your shorthanded experience and as a ‘rookie’ rounding the world, you must have been surprised by your recruitment as a skipper in a team aiming for victory in The Ocean Race? YR: I’ve always been a ‘loner’ because it’s the culture in France, but I also really like sailing with a crew. At a high level we don’t have much fully crewed racing in France any more. Charles Caudrelier called me to see if I was interested in the race. At different times Charles has played an important role in my professional career. He’s the one who hired me when I got out of Southampton as a preparateur when he was sailing the Figaro. In 2010 he lent me his boat to race the Solitaire. In 2019 he gave me his Figaro 3 project when he was hired by the Gitana Ultim team. And then he called me to put me on a Volvo project. Bruno Dubois is also involved and will be even more so in the future. SH: What is your programme? YR: As we speak, I have only sailed four days on the Volvo 65 in Cascais where the boat is. Generally speaking, we have a pro- gramme based on 80 days of navigation this year, but with the current lockdown we don’t know when we will get out. We wait for the light at the end of the tunnel and then we’ll reassess. SH: What about your sponsor? YR: The Mirpuri Foundation is a family foundation whose purpose is to communicate about the preservation of the planet through this round-the-world project. (Ed: Paulo Mirpuri is CEO of Portuguese aviation leasing specialist, Hi Fly, which charters aircraft on medium and longterm contracts to many of the major international airlines). In the last Volvo race the foundation supported Dee Caffari’s entry Turn the Tide on Plastic. But that all happened at the very last minute. This time the objective is to win. This is an ambitious project comparable to Dongfeng last time.


Also, I have great respect for the message that Mirpuri is bringing around the world. As a father, I want to leave this beautiful planet to my daughter and the next generation. Taken together each small step forward like this will make a valuable difference. SH: How’s the crew recruitment going? YR: We chartered two Figaros to sail in Lorient through the winter because we felt it was a faster way to assess someone using a smaller boat where each candidate can try every position. It was interesting, and many of our international participants were amazed at what was happening here. They found out what we were doing in Lorient, our offshore training and so on. Even the communications manager of our project, who is the former communications manager of the last Volvo, couldn’t believe it!


SEAHORSE 19





HEINRICH LEHMANN-WILLENBROCK


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