JULES VERNE TROPHY
IMMINENT DEPARTURE OF ROTHSCHILD’S MAXI EDMOND
There was a commotion in the air this afternoon on the pontoons at Lorient La Base. After a final reading of the weather maps and models, Gitana’s team decided this morning to switch to code green and once again to win the Jules Verne Trophy. Under the Breton sun, generous this Saturday, January 9, despite the winter frosts, the emotion was palpable and you could read in the eyes of the six sailors a few hours after starting this legendary round-the-world record. The audience had come in great numbers to greet them as they should. After more than two months of waiting, marked by a first attempt that was interrupted after a UFO collision and several false hopes of entering a favorable window, business is improving again for the two captains. Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, and their four crew members. All are ready to embark on an express planetary circumnavigation aboard the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, the first giant cut to fly offshore. The challenge is extraordinary, at the height of the benchmark time of 40 days 23 hours and 30 minutes played since January 2017 by Francis Joyon and his Idec Sport colleagues. It is between midnight and four in the morning when the men of the Gitana Team must cross the starting line, in front of Ouessant and thus activate their chrono all over the world.
The art of the game
After a last meteorological talk on the ground and at a distance with Marcel van Triest, router and seventh man, the six sailors of the team of the five arrows joined the 32-meter trimaran shortly after 3:00 p.m., which for several days has been kicking feet. I am looking forward to again seeking the title of the fastest sailing yacht in the world. Choosing the day and time of your departure in light of the weather forecasts deciphered and analyzed with surgical precision, is an art that makes the Jules Verne Trophy unique. In this little game of choosing the best launch window, the crew of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild had to cool the brakes and arm themselves with solid convictions to take their problems patiently. But this time, that’s it, against a meteorological horizon emerging on the other side of the Atlantic, they are well and truly on the starting grid, ready to take on this frantic race against the clock. “We started from the beginning of the stand-by, but we knew that the situation was not ideal. Since our return, we have seen and observed six windows that have been closed. Therefore, we are particularly happy to go there with a climate setting that, although still a bit uncertain regarding low pressure systems in the southern hemisphere, it opens up a great opportunity for us, ”explains Franck Cammas.
