Francis Joyon takes second but not passing the flame on yet

by The Bridge on 5 Jul 2017 Francois “no limits” Gabart: “I know that we will manage to fly”

After winning The Bridge – Centennial Transat Ultimate trimaran race on Monday morning, François Gabart sat down and spoke about the future, his plans for Macif and why he hopes he will be stunned by what the kids of today are sailing in 30 years.

How do you feel Macif performed, were you encouraged by her upwind and light wind speeds?

“I knew this boat has wonderful potential, but we were surprised sometimes by the way she can accelerate even upwind, not at 45 or 55 degrees to the wind but if it’s 60-65 she could go 20-25 close to 30 knots. This is incredible and I’m sure we can go faster over the next few years. Don’t put any limits on what we can do, it’s not a good idea. Sometimes you have the feeling that a boat is close to its limits, but with this boat I really think that when we are reaching we are close to flying, that is the key and it will be the key for the next few years. We will try to change the boat, maybe fly and go even faster in lighter winds because when you get this speed and there is not so much wind, you have this apparent wind which goes higher and higher and you can go faster and faster.”

What do you think of the debate about “are they sailing or flying?”

Are they sailing? Yes, because she’s always touching the water, so she’s still a boat and we just want to make this boat go fast. I mean, this is what I’ve been trying to do since I’ve been competing on a boat, even when I was sailing an Optimist, I was just trying to go as fast as possible. It’s what I’m doing now and with all the improvements we’re getting in the sailing world - the America’s Cup just finished and you could see what they’re able to do - I think we have a lot to learn in offshore sailing. I know that we will manage to fly in the same way, maybe not exactly the same way, solo and around the world in the next few years, but one day we will. It changes so many things because when you go as fast as this, you are making your own wind and there is no limit after that. When you’re sailing offshore you depend on the weather, but if you’re making your own wind you don’t care about the weather, you can go even in light winds. So, I think it will create a big revolution in sailing in the next few years.

How will you optimize Macif?

We’ll have new rudders and foils, we’re working on it now. It’s possible to have more sail area, but we have a set amount of money and you try to do as well as you can. We don’t have the same abilities as the America’s Cup, we’re a small team, a big team for offshore sailing, but we don’t millions of Euros, we need to be smart. This boat has been made for a five-year project and I think we can change the foils once. We don’t have the money to change the foils every year.

Were you surprised Francis (Joyon) was so competitive in this race despite having a 10-year-old boat that he hasn’t optimized at all?

I think we were more surprised this winter when he broke the (crewed round-the-world) record the way he did. We knew that his boat was incredible but to sail that around the world was really a surprise for people, after that we cannot be surprise by him. We knew he’d be one of the best in the race and we’d have to fight hard against him.”

Any changes to your plans?

No. This was our first crewed race and it will be the only one for at least a few years. I will switch back to the solo until 2020 at least. The next thing is to try and break the solo around the world record in October – well, we start to wait for the weather window then.

Will the 2019 Ultimate-class solo race around the world happen?

It will happen, there will be at least six boats, maybe more, but six wonderful boats and maybe the skippers in the world in offshore sailing, when you have Armel, Coville, Francis Joyon, Sebastien Josse, there are not many other skipper that are able to do what they’ve done. This is the top class and I’m proud to be part of this and to compete with the best skippers in the best boat’s in the world.

There are three generations of sailors on the podium, you, aged 34, Thomas Colville, 49 and Joyon, 61, is it strange beating people you heard about as a child learning to sail?

It’s really great, because I’ve been sailing since I was a kid and there are a lot of people who made me dream about what they were doing. When I was sailing an Optimist I was dreaming about these people who were sailing in their Orma 60s in the 1990s or in the Vendée Globe. I was dreaming about them and then day after day I was sailing with them or against them. I’m proud because I’m living my childhood dream. That’s probably the best thing we can give to a kid, the ability to dream.

And somewhere in Saint-Nazaire, Lorient, Brest, Nantes or Charente (where Gabart was born) there’s a 10-year-old…

Of course. Two or three weeks ago I was at the Norwegian national championships for the Optimists, their selection for the world championships and there were lots of small kids, 12-13 year-olds, and I hope that one day they will sail in this type of boat, I mean, not this type of boat, but something that I will look at and think “Omigod” this is amazing. It’s the way it should go.