Joined this Friday during the weekly vacation of Brest Atlantiques, Franck Cammas told the first three days of sea on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.
The conditions of the day. "We found wind for three hours, which was not the case before, we had a long period of light weather. These are summer conditions, the weather is nice, the sea is flat, we do not have much wind, 15 knots, but it makes it possible to advance quite a bit. I burned my knee with boiling water, it's not very beautiful to see, but everything is fine. "
The start of the race. "We started a reef in 6 meters of hollow, the goal was that the first hours go well for the boat, it began to weaken after five hours, the sea has improved towards the approach of Spanish coasts. The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild behaved quite a lot, we managed to make correct averages in these seas, around 30 knots, almost beyond what we imagined, it ended well. We chose to go inside the DST at Cape Finisterre for reasons of ease compared to the sea which was more correct. "
The pace to find. "We began to jibe at the level of Madeira. The options were to make a single jibe by getting closer to the center of the anticyclone and by doing a few hours across the road or to exploit a little better in the east to avoid soft spots, we chose the second solution. We made a first jibe around midnight in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, with a few hours when we were really well and a great angle of exit, then, it deteriorated with very changeable winds, adonnantes and refusals of 30 or 40 degrees that could not be exploited, because a jibe is about 15-20 minutes, and given the conditions, the wind rotations had already passed. "
The regatta with the Macif Trimaran. "It's not just Macif. 200 or 300 miles on these boats that go to 30 knots, it can be reduced very quickly. In time, there is not much difference, we saw last night that between two rankings, there are differences of almost 10 knots of speed, the gaps are made and fall apart very quickly. After, we imagined that it was going to be like this, Macif, the boat goes fast all the time, they know him perfectly, master this kind of navigation around the world, we are very happy to meet with them already, so be ahead, so much better, but it's only the beginning of the race. Anyway, it's nice to have a beautiful regatta on a global scale, we see that the oceans are shrinking, it's a beautiful game of chess in the Atlantic. "
The strategy to come. "There is already the management of Cape Verde with a little wind, then, the Doldrums. I have the impression that it is quite clear when you enter it, but it is reformed before leaving it. There is a very small chance that the person who comes first will be better than his pursuers, so we will try to return at least at the same time as Macif.