Franck Cammas interview- Multi-Talented

by Dominic Bourgeois, Course Au Large on 31 Jan 2010 Franck Cammas is a pragmatic, rigorous, passionate guy, who enjoys all forms of sailing: Figaro, sports catamaran, maxi multihull, sportsboat. Assisted by his team, Cammas is already involved with management of the 60-foot trimaran Groupama 2, the Extreme 40 catamaran and the giant trimaran Groupama 3.

After 12 seasons marked by a number of outstanding victories on the 60-foot circuit, Groupama is passing a new milestone with its investment in the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race.

'We trust in Franck to take up this new challenge as we appreciate his ability to create a team, manage a crew and also the design of high performance boats. These qualities will be decisive in the Volvo,' said Federique Granado, director of Groupama's external communications.

The Volvo project dates back to summer 2009, when Cammas presented the idea of taking part in the race to Groupama, explaining what it would entail in technical and human terms and how the group could use the event and its spin-offs to influence its image.

He also chatted with the organisers and measurers to find out how they view things and discover the teams likely to participate. Assurance from Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, about keeping costs down so that the big teams cannot 'buy' the result before they start, had a considerable bearing on this decision.

'Teams can only have a single new boat and that should open the race up to more countries,' Cammas said. 'We think that we will be more competitive without having excessive financing, as has sometimes been the case in the past. Even those who have an additional boat from the previous generation are limited in their preparation phase. The odds are fairer.'

It was a book by Eric Tabarly ('Du tour du monde a la transat') that sparked the man from Aix-en-Provence's passion for boats, the sea and technology. As such, this commitment to the Volvo is a logical step forward for the Groupama team.

'The Volvo Ocean Race is a really top level race. Everyone agrees that, in terms of sailors, engineers, yachts, components, manufacturers and designers, the cream is here with an international line-up. It will be a big change for us to switch from the multihull to the monohull, but these boats have a very similar performance and their handling is reminiscent of the 60-foot trimarans 10 years ago.

'Able to cover nearly 600 miles in 24 hours, as was the case during the last Volvo Ocean Race, they're starting to be capable of some impressive speeds. We shouldn't be too disoriented in terms of speed and helming,' he adds.

A Volvo project involves different constraints to those inherent in the management of a maxi multihull however. The technical team will have to be fleshed out, the experience of former crew from the round the world race, including Laurent Pages and Damian Foxall, will breathe new life into the team.

Cammas has sought the expertise of Juan Kouyoumdjian, the designer of the winners of the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race and the team have bought the 2008-09 race winning-boat Ericsson 4.

Cammas said: 'Juan has considerable experience of this type of boat, with a lot of data amassed thanks to eight years of research and development. It's not easy to do in eight months when setting out from a blank sheet of paper, even if the designers are really talented.

'We favoured starting out from a very well-designed base and developing it further. It will be different from what we're used to, but we also have our own experience we can input.

There's a lot to be learned about these boats and the way to handle them. The sail areas and the number of sails are very different compared with what the crew is used to in multihull sailing.

'There are as many crew aboard Groupama 3 as on a Volvo Open 70. The way in which we organise ourselves on the giant trimaran can be easily adapted, even though the principles will be different as the format is not identical.

'It won't necessarily be the crew of Groupama 3 who will go out on the new monohull. We're going to call upon crew members who already have a wealth of experience of these Volvo Open 70s.'

Full story published in the latest issue of Life At The Extreme magazine - http://www.volvooceanrace.com