Groupama Volvo 70 Christening (Photo by Studio Zedda)
Whether or not you’re superstitious, a christening remains a compulsory and symbolic moment in the life of a boat. At 1400 GMT this Saturday 11 June, the traditional bottle of champagne was smashed across the bow of Groupama 4, the new monohull aboard which Franck Cammas and his international crew will take part in the next Volvo Ocean Race. The history of this crewed round the world with stopovers has been marked by a great French sailor: Eric Tabarly. It is his right arm, the sailor and offshore race organiser Gérard Petipas, who was selected to be patron to the first Volvo Open 70 built in France.
The public was out in force for this historic moment in sailing: the christening of the monohull Groupama sailing team, crewed by the first French team to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race since 1993, with Éric Tabarly. Over 3,000 spectators packed around the Keroman submarine base in Lorient to discover those faces who will carry Groupama’s colours around the world for eight months across ten countries.
Jean Azéma, CEO of Groupama: “We’re now switching from the technical to the human face of the project. The big crowds testify to the attachment the local people have for the Groupama project and the Volvo Ocean Race. Various colleagues from Groupama have come here today from right across France and Europe to provide their support for Franck Cammas and his team”.
Open to the public, the christening village played host to a wealth of visitors and entertained the children throughout the day. At 1500 hours local time, all eyes were on the pontoons where the sixty members of Groupama sailing team formed a guard of honour for the crew of Groupama 4. The ‘son et lumières’ show and the releasing of balloons delighted the public, with everyone seemingly holding their breath as the specially rigged up champagne bottle was hurled against the bow. Franck Cammas: “I’m not superstitious but I was relieved when the bottle broke first time. I’m happy to have been able to share this christening ceremony with all my team as well as my sponsor, Groupama, for what will soon be 14 years”.
Team Groupama at Lorient Christening (Photo by Studio Zedda)
Memories of the great French sailor Éric Tabarly were all around the port of Lorient this Saturday. Pen Duick VI, which participated in the first edition of the Whitbread (predecessor to the Volvo Ocean Race) was on the water next to the new monohull Groupama. Gérard Petipas*, a loyal friend of Éric Tabarly and an acclaimed sailor on the various Pen Duick craft, was chosen by Franck Cammas to be patron to Groupama 4. The christening was synonymous with handing on the torch, as Gérard Petipas explains: “I’m honoured and touched to have been chosen by Franck to be the patron to Groupama 4. 38 years ago, Éric and I christened another boat, Pen Duick VI, the first French boat to race the Whitbread. I find in Franck the same qualities that I appreciated in Éric: Franck is a great skipper and a leader of men. He has designed this boat and has battled to do it. The fact that he’s been with Groupama for 13 years is prodigious. He has succeeded in putting together a fabulous team. He is a remarkable man.”
Franck Cammas: “For the past 18 years, the race hasn’t seen a French crew. Éric Tabarly took part in the Whitbread five times without ever winning it. With Groupama sailing team, we’re taking back the torch. It was a link I held very dear and I wanted to be present to see.”
The town of Lorient, a stopover in the Volvo Ocean Race in June 2012, benefited from Groupama 4′s christening to launch its volunteer recruitment campaign. Lorient and its surrounding area are actively preparing to play host, nearly a year to the day, to the six boats competing in the crewed round the world with stopovers. To achieve this, it is counting on the motivation and enthusiasm of 700 volunteers from all over France.
Groupama VOR70 Christened in Lorient, France (Photo by Studio Zedda)
Groupama 3 Under Sail (Photo by Yvan Zedda)
At first light tomorrow morning, Thursday, the maxi trimaran Groupama 3 will be leaving her home port of Lorient bound for Brest. From here she will set off on her latest attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy as soon as a favourable weather window presents itself.
As was the case during their last attempt, Franck Cammas and his nine crew have opted to set off from Brest to make for the start line of the Jules Verne Trophy off Ushant: “Closer to Ushant and easier to reach, especially in NW’ly winds, Brest is ideally situated for the Jules Verne Trophy. We were able to witness that last November so we’ll be happy to be back there, especially as we were given a great welcome” says the skipper of Groupama 3.
For the delivery to Brest, the crew of the Jules Verne Trophy will be complete and identical to that of the last attempt, which was cut short in the Southern Atlantic, following damage to the section linking the aft beam and the port float. As such, American Stan Honey will be taking care of the navigation, the watch leaders will be Franck Cammas, Fred Le Peutrec and Stève Ravussin, the helmsmen Lionel Lemonchois, Loïc Le Mignon and Thomas Coville and finally the bowmen Ronan Le Goff, Jacques Caraës and Bruno Jeanjean.
“It’s nice to be back together again. Those who made the return delivery trip from South Africa have had the time to rest and spend some quality time with their families. As far as Groupama 3 is concerned, she’s all ready to go. The food for the round the world is stowed away onboard and all that remains is to load the fresh supplies in Brest at the last minute” continues Franck Cammas.
The only thing missing is the exact timing of when the weather conditions will be favourable to set off: “Obviously we’re studying the weather forecast with Sylvain Mondon. There’s nothing very clear for the time being, but we’re ready to go. For now we’re still on a code red” concludes the skipper of Groupama 3.
Groupama 3 (Photo courtesy of Team Groupama)
After three weeks sailing off Lorient designed to validate the completion of work carried out since her South African stopover in December, the maxi trimaran Groupama 3, skippered by Franck Cammas, is today beginning a stand-by period for a fresh attempt at conquering the Jules Verne Trophy.
Ready to get down to work since 29th December, the date of her return from South Africa, the technical crew from Team Groupama, assisted by employees from the Multiplast and Gépéto yard, have now completed the reinforcement work, most of which has been performed on the aft sections of the floats: “Despite the highly unfavourable weather conditions, the work necessary to repair Groupama 3 and make her reliable have been completed. The three test sails offshore of Lorient have enabled the crew to really push the boat to ensure that everything’s working as it should” confides Stéphane Guilbaud, team manager.
“It doesn’t happen very often that we end up working in the snow or in temperatures of less than 0°. We had to install some heaters and covers to respect the specifications inherent in working with carbon material. All this was done whilst Groupama 3 was on the water and the schedule was fairly tight so as not to risk missing a favourable weather window for setting out on the Jules Verne” adds Pierre Tissier, technical manager.
As regards the crew, although navigator Stan Honey is at home in San Francisco and Ronan Le Goff is in Brazil, the eight remaining sailors are present on site at varying degrees. Franck Cammas, Fred Le Peutrec and Loïc Le Mignon are there on a daily basis, Lionel Lemonchois, Thomas Coville, Jacques Caraës and Stève Ravussin are available for the sailing, whilst Bruno Jeanjean is monitoring the preparation of Port de Palavas Les Flots, of which he is the captain.
However, despite being geographically divided, the crew remain focused on the same objective: “We’re itching to get back out to sea, to get back together again and experience the same passion for the sea and speed. You tend to forget sometimes, but our past experiences have made us stronger. We know each other well and we like sailing on Groupama 3. She’s a very fine boat. It’s up to us to maintain her so that we can get right the way around, without any major problems” continues Fred Le Peutrec.
As to whether or not the crew trust in her reliability, Franck Cammas assesses the situation simply: “Groupama 3 has never been as solid as she is today. That clearly isn’t a performance bond as she’s a prototype, but we’ve done everything we can to ensure she is capable of getting us safely back to port. It’s up to us to find the right pace and some acceptable weather conditions, even though it’s evident that on a round the world we’ll have to tackle some bad weather. This is as much the difficulty of the Jules Verne Trophy as the appeal”.
What remains now is to find out if a favourable weather window will enable Groupama 3 to set off on her third attempt to conquer the Jules Verne Trophy: “We’re giving ourselves until 5th February to set off. Beyond that date, we’ll have to give up our stand-by for two reasons: the first is that it will become very risky to sail in the Southern Ocean, because the summer in the Southern hemisphere will be over, resulting in violent winds, longer nights and numerous icebergs. The second reason is related to the fact that we have to kit Groupama 3 out for `Solo’ mode with a view to competing in the Route du Rhum. She will have to be ready from the month of June in order for me to train under good conditions” continues Franck Cammas.
As was the case during the last attempt, it’s Sylvain Mondon from Météo France who’s in charge of carefully studying how the weather evolves. He exchanges information on a daily basis with Stan Honey, the navigator, and Franck Cammas. The big question now is how good a weather window is required for us to set off: “Obviously we’re more demanding at the start of stand-by than at the end, given that it’s difficult to predict the evolution in the weather for more than seven days. However, we’re also aware that, in order to stand a chance of beating Bruno Peyron’s record (50 days), we mustn’t set out at any cost” concludes the skipper of Groupama 3 from his base in Lorient.
