With the Mirabaud Bol d’Or now behind them and the Maxi Trimaran ready for competition, the Spindrift Racing Team is back in training mode, and Yann Guichard and his crew have today set off to complete a Transatlantic passage between two world sailing hub – La Trinite’-Sur-Mer in Brittany and Newport, Rhode Island, USA.
The crew of twelve met at Spindrift racing’s base in St Philibert on Friday 15 June and a few hours later, left for their 3000-mile training sail between France and the United States. While the Atlantic is well known to all of the sailors onboard, it provides a great place to train as it offers constantly varied and changing weather situations. In this way the crew will have an excellent opportunity to, once again get back into the rhythm of sailing the world’s largest trimaran as the team prepares for their upcoming Jules Verne Trophy attempt.
The benefits of getting back out on the water and sailing for a longer period are not lost on Yann Guichard: “In sailing, you continue to learn, from the first day through to the last, and the more we sail the better we will get. A transatlantic can be a very effective exercise, and offers much more than single training days in the bay of Quiberon. Sailing these longer passages allows us to set goals for the longer term, to strengthen our teamwork and especially to get some sea miles under our belt.”
However, there is a double objective to this crossing. The first is team oriented: “This is not the final crew for the Jules Verne but a transat offers us the opportunity to test new people whose profile can bring something to a world record attempt. I place a lot of importance on team work and my choice of crew, and it is important that any new recruit fits in with the group as a whole. We are sailing with 12 crew, which includes seven sailors that form the core of Spindrift racing and who have been with me almost since the beginning,” commented Yann.
The second objective is “to get as much data and analytics from Spindrift 2 in her new configuration as possible. This year, she has been fitted with her original mast that we shortened and adapted for the 2014 Route du Rhum. As the mast is smaller than our previous one, the team will have to adapt and make some changes in how we sail. So far we have not sailed much with our new rig, so by adapting both technically and physically, we can be as prepared as possible for the challenge that awaits us at the end of the year,” explained the skipper.
With the black and gold team now enroute, it is expected that they will sail south towards the Canaries so as to “find the conditions that are as similar as possible to the reaching conditions that we would find on a World tour,” concluded Yann.
Spindrift 2 is expected to arrive in Newport on about 23 June.