Route du Rhum - Safran’s weather trio

by Safran Sailing Team on 2 Nov 2014 With less than 24 hours before the start, the pressure is rising in Saint-Malo. Marc Guillemot remains relaxed and smiling, but the skipper of Safran is gradually going into race mode and minutely analysing the weather for the start with Morgan Lagravière and Gwénolé Gahinet, the other two sailors in the Safran Sailing Team. In two words: it will be wet and lively tomorrow at 1400hrs on the start line of the 10th edition of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.

Morgan Lagravière and Gwénolé Gahinet joined Marc Guillemot in Saint-Malo on Friday. The three sailors decided to prepare the strategy together for the 3,510-miles of a race that the skipper of Safran knows so well having participated four times before. 'Morgan and Gwénolé are working on the overall analysis of the race several times a day, they are examining routings and then we compare our thoughts on the path to follow,' Guillemot explains. 'It’s important to have their thoughts, it improves my thinking. We are stronger as a three.' For their part, Lagravière and Gahinet have thrown themselves into the weather game with undisguised pleasure. 'As an engineer, I find it exciting spending time on a computer analysing weather systems, finding the best option,' Gahinet, the skipper of the Figaro Safran-Guy Cotten says. 'On Thursday, we spent all night together going through the routings in our hotel room,' Lagravière adds, 'We were so focused we lost track of time.' Their shared experience in the Figaro Bénéteau, and the logic of Gahinet and the feeling of Lagravière is a real asset in trying to decipher and analyse the first few hours of the race in the Channel, a field of play that the two young sailors know by heart.

After a week of incredibly summery festivities in Saint-Malo, the weather for the start looks much more autumnal. 'The start will be lively but the pattern is pretty clear with 15-20 knot south-westerly winds during the passage of the front,' Guillemot says. 'Visibility will be low with a lot of rain and I’ll have to watch out for traffic on the water with the hundreds of boats that are expected out there.' The race boats will then all head on a tack to Cap Fréhel 18 miles away, where they will be greeted by thousands of spectators from the cliffs. 'At the point level with Île-de-Bréhat, there will be a chance to play the first little shots in the game with a few tacks along the coast,' Gahinet explains. Overnight from Sunday to Monday, the wind will strengthen with gusts of over 35 knots. 'Marc will need anticipate the sail changes really well and choose the right moment to tack to go outside the Ushant TSS*, Lagravière says. 'This will be one of the key points at the beginning of the race.'

The pace will then accelerate in the Atlantic with a further strengthening of the wind, which will gradually swing in their favour. Downwind in a very stable sea and with heavy showers, the competitors will arrive at Cape Finisterre. That will spice up the contest. 'We’ll have to use our intuition across the Bay of Biscay,' the skipper of Safran says. 'We won’t get much sleep during the beginning of the race.'

When Guillemot developed his race strategy, he also took into account another parameter: his direct competitors. Among the headliners are Macif (François Gabart), PRB (Vincent Riou) and Maître CoQ (Jéremié Beyou). 'During the training sessions with the Pôle Finistère Course au Large this summer, we faced and sized each other up, and so, inevitably, now, I’m taking into account what seem to be the strengths weaknesses of my competitors as I refine my strategy,' Guillemot says.

Unlike in the Ultime or Multi 50 multihull classes, the monohulls do not have the right to use a router during the race. Lagravière and Gahinet will analyse the latest weather on board Safran until the last minute tomorrow in the starting area. 'Everything will be decided at the last moment, but for now the Azores High seems relatively stable,' Marc concludes, 'we should be able to see things clearly there before the boys get off. Then it will be my turn.'

*TSS: Traffic Separation Scheme of cargo ships