The skipper of Imoca Ucar - Saint-Michel will no longer have his boat after the race. Sold. But he does not imagine that this Route du Rhum could be the last. Interview.
Are you one of those people who, a few weeks before a big event, live and think only of that? Yes, not far! After, I have a family, children I like to see, I went to see my big in Brest, I took the time to go surfing, to ride a bike, to take care of me because in the end, it's good to think about it, but you have to know how to set up cool little moments of fullness, to know how not to be thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly. And the day of departure can no longer be in power and be too stressed. I'm the type to think about it often, but not all the time (laugh)!
What is the alchemy between this race, which you have already done in Mod 70, and a sailor? Why does she attract so much? Because it's a difficult race! We leave in November, all alone, unlike a Transat Jacques Vabre where we can count on a friend. We know we will face the elements, we will drool, we would be tempted to trivialize things compared to a Vendée Globe because it only lasts twelve days ... But we are solo, it requires a level of higher requirement because there is no time to contemplate, to look ... Florence Arthaud said it in its time: "One must think only to be thoroughly from the beginning to the end. It was well before the 2000s, and that's it, the Route du Rhum: from the first, Mike Birch had warned that it was going to be played until the end. It will be necessary to be thoroughly from beginning to end, and there, precisely, to think only of that. We think of coconut palms and rum sweets only once the finish line is crossed.
It will be a sprint compared to the marathon that represents a Vendée ... (He cuts) It's a middle distance actually. Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, when he describes what it is, says "you start thoroughly, and on the last 200 you have to unplug the brain, repel the pain and go to vomit". It describes very well what it is, and I have the impression that this is what awaits us.
But does not this theory apply to every athlete of the highest level? That's true, but Pierre-Ambroise is young. Me, I'm 45, I have a family, a little more bottle. We are lucky to have careers a little longer and to go from a young wolf to an old wolf, which means that we probably put more into perspective. We probably see things a little differently with time ...
Which format do you prefer, which exercise do you feel most comfortable with? What I love is the coastal format, Solitaire du Figaro, it's my hobby. We could almost compare the Route du Rhum to a big stage of Figaro, even if it's not quite true because at some point we will only play with major weather phenomena because there is will have more local phenomena. But I have the impression that with the age one fits more in the duration, when I see what Jean Le Cam and Jean-Luc Van den Heede do, the maturity and the age push to appreciate the length at sea. I think I follow these illustrious elders in the way I have to understand offshore racing.
Are you still at the top physically, or have you started to understand your movements, the power to release in a different way? To maintain a physical level that corresponds to the use of these boats, I am obliged to do more and pay more attention to sleep well, eat well, no alcohol at all, cigarettes, more Excess ... We had to stop all that. I have ten years before me, where I must live like an esthete. I no longer have the right, as in the good old days, to go out, but it's nice to live differently. And I think that at 40, a rocking is done anyway. We say to ourselves: "Bullshit, I made a bundle, but I want to enjoy it until the end so I stop there. You have to be reasonable (he laughs). This is the observation I made.
Precisely, your Route du Rhum four years ago on a Mod70, it was the last thing a little excessive ... Yes, it's clear! I do not regret it at all, and I think I would do it again, it did not disgust me! But at that moment I smoked, four years later I do not smoke anymore, I am in a more accomplished step. I work with a nice physical trainer, who is not always in the hard because he has understood that guys like us are able to go very far mentally, because we have the head that can give orders to the body and make it suffer momentarily. Except that 40 years ... I saw my limits after the Vendée Globe, chained to a Solitaire du Figaro and a Jacques Vabre, on arrival I was arms crossed on the beach in Brazil. Burnt ! More juice! And you have to know it: when we go into a physical preparation process, we like that. I like to give myself, fuck me, but you have to deal with the body ...
There, unlike the Mod70, your Imoca is a safe, right? Yes, it's a safe, but the limit is that you have to pay attention to yourself. I am always able to put some commitment, when the physical challenge presents itself I go inside, but it is not necessary to put in the red, to keep lucidity to be able to not do stupidity. The accident, I know what it is, it happened to me (at the Vendée Globe in 2008). The head had not analyzed the situation well before, and these patterns should not be reproduced. We enter the fight, but we must not forget to think.
This is your last race aboard this boat, how are you taking it? What I say to myself is that I have the chance to sail on these boats. Maybe she will not represent herself anymore, I do not know ... I do not think so, but you have to take it like that. In any case, if I renavigue on my own Imoca (Ucar - Saint-Michel belongs to the stable of Jean-Pierre Dick), it could be in a long time. In six months, one year. You have to know how to taste his pleasure, not to approach that a little jaded, like yet another navigation in Imoca. I hope to have a great race with this boat, show Jean-Pierre that he was right to trust me, keep this motivated team on a new project ... We are going through difficult times right now, we do not know how to what will be done the future that oscillates between dismissal and construction of a new boat, the range remains quite wide. A nice reward on the finish line would please guys.
A successful Route du Rhum, what would it be? It's a bit of a podium or nothing. We need that. It is the necessity of the moment. A podium, and nothing else. If I do not ride, I'll have the balls. On paper, there are six boats to claim and I can finish 6th, but no. I have to put my name on this race. At the time of the assessment, I can say that I will have made two Jules Verne Trophy, three Solitaire du Figaro, two Transat Jacques Vabre, so if I could say that I also won the Route du Rhum, that would have mouth! I would not be sick of not winning it, but the opportunity rarely comes up: it's every four years, it's a bit like our Olympic Games. Like the Vendée. When you're young, you think you have time. After a certain age, we say that there are only one or two left ...
You mentioned the dismissal or the construction of a boat. What do you need ? We need 2 million euros a year for three years. We have a club of partners which allows us to increase this budget and to fall back on our feet, but we need a big sponsor who arrives and tells us: "OK, I take the name of the boat, I put 2 million euros per year. "If we decide not to make the next Jacques Vabre, we put the boat in the fall-winter of 2020, we still have a little time in front of us.