Tuesday 15 May
After the ArMen Race Safran to tackle the Round Britain and Ireland record
Description : CP1505There is not going to be much rest for the Safran
monohull and her crew following on from the Guyader Grand Prix: Marc
Guillemot and his team will on Thursday be attempting to keep their title in
the ArMen Race. Four days later, they will be on stand-by to try to improve
on their own record around Britain and Ireland.
Safran has a title to defend on Thursday 17th May as winner of the last
Ingérop ArMen Race, a 300-mile crewed race, starting and finishing in La
Trinité-sur-Mer in Southern Brittany. After passing the famous Ar-Men
Lighthouse off the Pointe du Raz, the competitors will head back down to
sail around Belle-Ile, going through the La Teignouse passage in Quiberon
Bay, before heading south to sail around the island of Yeu, and then making
their way back up to La Trinité-sur-Mer and the finish. Last year, Safran
won this race after a closely fought contest with Vincent Riou’s PRB. This
year, the rivals will be Arnaud Boissières’s Akena Vérandas and Samantha
Davies’s Savéol.
The crew of Safran for this race, which is expected to last around thirty
hours, will include Marc Guillemot, Loïc Lingois, Alexandre Marmorat, César
Dohy and Vincent Busnel. As for Pascal Bidégorry, he is going to be busy on
Yann Guichard’s MOD 70, while Sébastien Audigane has been attempting to
smash the North Atlantic monohull record with Giovanni Soldini. The goal in
this ArMen Race will be of course to win, but above all to continue to
prepare the boat and the crew for what lies ahead.
"We can shave a day off"
What lies immediately ahead is the Round Britain and Ireland record. This
time, Pascal Bidégorry and Sébastien Audigane will be on board. The stand by
is due to start on 21st May. The precise start will depend on when they find
a favourable weather opportunity. Marc Guillemot really wants to make a big
improvement on his own record set last year in 6 days, 9 hours, 48 minutes
and 50 seconds and is even hoping to shave a whole day off this record time.
What Pascal Bidégorry and Marc Guillemot think
Pascal Bidégorry:
“On board, I shall be taking care of the weather in particular and the
navigation with Marc, as well as taking the helm. What is tricky is finding
a good weather opportunity, where there will not be too many transition
phases to deal with, in order not to leave too much to chance. It must not
be too complicated. I know these waters a little and one of the particular
difficulties is the problem with the oil rigs along the East coast, which
force you to adapt your route. Apart from that, there are of course the
weather conditions. It is colder in the Shetlands than in La Trinité and the
fog can be quite thick. This is a coastal race, where you need as always to
get lucky to achieve a good time."
Marc Guillemot:
“The stand-by period is due to run from 21st to 31st May. We are willing to
extend that, if necessary. The idea behind records is that we are never sure
that we will be able to set off. The ideal scenario would obviously be to
see a stable low-pressure area centred over the British Isles, which would
allow us to head off east and to go all the way around sailing downwind...
but that is not going to be easy to find. The goal above all is to beat the
record, but we would also like to improve it by a lot. We believe in theory
that we can shave a day off in comparison to our time from 2011, or in any
case take it down to under 6 days. The course allows us to go through a wide
range of wind and sea conditions, which is bound to be interesting with the
Vendée Globe coming up. And as the IMOCA programme isn’t very busy this
year, it seems like a good opportunity to go for this record as part of our
preparation. I’ll say it again, but the best way to prepare is to get out
there sailing with a crew and solo. This time, if we manage to find a good
weather opportunity, we’ll be out there by ourselves and not fighting a
duel, as we did last year with PRB. That of course, does change things
somewhat, but does not affect our goal of preparing for the Vendée Globe.
With a crew, we can learn a lot of things that will be very useful, when we
find ourselves alone on the boat."
SAFRAN
Caroline Coudert
For more information, www.safran-group.com
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