Oman Sail preparations for Route du Rhum continue apace

by Oman Sail on 30 Sep 2014 Route du Rhum 2014 - The Sultanate of Oman’s flagship campaign, Musandam-Oman Sail, a 70ft trimaran skippered by Frenchman Sidney Gavignet and more commonly used by the national initiative Oman Sail as an ultra high-performance training platform for a number of successful Omani sailors, raced the Azimut Challenge in Lorient, France, last weekend, finishing second overall in the 'Ultimes' Class.

The Azimut Challenge was the first real single-handed competition for Sidney, who has dedicated the month of September since setting a new Round Britain and Ireland world record with a 50% Omani crew, to Route du Rhum preparations. It was an excellent opportunity to measure his progress against a number of the giant multihulls also entered in the Route du Rhum 'Ultimes' Class.

The Route du Rhum is the ultimate single-handed race. It starts on the 2 November in St Malo, France, and takes the 90-strong fleet across the Bay of Biscay – a perilous stretch of water – then west across the Atlantic Ocean to the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism of Oman see the event, not only as a sporting challenge that will further inspire Omani sailors to strive for excellence, but as a platform to share the beauty of the Sultanate directly with the French public through the Visit Oman-Tourism Pavilion set up at the Route du Rhum regatta village in St Malo.

But that is still a month away and Musandam-Oman Sail is still in the preparatory phase…

Racing single-handed gives the solo skipper a chance to test boat-handling techniques, systems and adaptations made to the 70ft trimaran by the mixed Omani and International shore team under the pressure of competition. After a 12 hour sprint and exchanging leads throughout the night with fellow-Frenchman, Sebastien Josse, a regular rival on the MOD70, Sidney and the shore team were satisfied with progress and looking forward to his next session.
'It was very close throughout the night which shows that we are all quite even in light conditions – I made some errors on the race course which put me in second place, but I really enjoyed the competition.

'It wasn’t a true Route du Rhum scenario as being a 12 hour sprint, we didn’t sleep during the race, but it was an excellent opportunity to test the electronic systems and particularly the UpSide Up anti-capsize system, equipment that controls the alarms and automatically releases the sheets based on pre-defined thresholds. We have made good progress with our preparations, but there is still more work to be done on the electronics side for full reliability,' said the skipper.

With just 33 days to the start of this epic challenge, Sidney is taking every opportunity to spend time alone at sea. He will cast off again this afternoon for a 48-hour solo session with another checklist of tasks to verify and refine. 'We are getting to the stage now where we are refining things – details like marking the sheets – which means that we are on top of our preparations. I need more time at sea alone, so am going to head out again for a couple of nights to work on the physical side, making sure that I sleep whatever the conditions – something that is critical for the Route du Rhum.'

Azimut Challenge – results, Ultimes Class
1. Edmond de Rothschild, Sebastien Josse
2. Musandam-Oman Sail, Sidney Gavignet
3. Paprec Recyclage, Yann Elies
4. Banque Populaire, Loick Peyron