Spindrift 2 returns to Brittany

by Virginie Bouchet on 28 Nov 2013 After departing on October 7 from Lorient for Portimao for the standby for the Discovery Route, Spindrift 2 is back in Brittany. In one month and 19 days, Spindrift 2 has covered 10,317 miles, broken the record for the Discovery Route with a new record time of six days 14 hours and 29 minutes, crossed the Atlantic twice and sailed in all conditions and in all sea states. It has been a perfect learning curve about this great boat for the skippers and also for the whole team. So, it is with some satisfaction that the team, led by Yann Guichard, returned to Breton waters and moored up last night in its home harbour in La Trinité-sur-Mer.

Guichard is back after two months that have raced by and after this last 10 days of delivery, which completed the first stage of the Spindrift 2 adventure. 'This return delivery was super informative, with conditions that we did not see during our record, some upwind, close-hauled etc...It has shown us how to adjust the boat for different patterns of weather and sea. Beyond testing solo sailing, which was one of the objectives, the idea was also to spend some time seeing how the boat works and how to make improvements. We thought during this delivery we would find we would finds things to develop and ingenious systems to optimise it even for sailing with a full crew. With the plan of sailing Spindrift 2 solo in the next Route du Rhum, we tested the balance of sails and skipper. But this is a boat that is 25 tonnes and 40 metres long and handling the sails remains a very difficult exercise. Now we need to do the analysis with the shore crew and we have until the end of the year to decide whether or not I will be at the start line for the next Route du Rhum on Spindrift 2. This is an important decision because it requires the commitment of the whole team, associated partners and my family. But I can say that after traveling 10,000 miles over these last two months, the adventure is just beginning.'