"It's my Route du Rhum, in a barrel! "Laughs Jean-Jacques Savin. This great sportsman and "adventurer in the soul" of 71 years will in the coming weeks try to cross the Atlantic in a cask with the air of space capsule, by the only force of currents.
In the courtyard of a small shipyard in Arès, in the Arcachon basin (Gironde), the orange "barrel" looks like a barrel, with its oblong shape and beveled sides. But the epoxy plywood boat, a process that hardens the material to resist wave attack, is 3 meters long, 2.10 meters in diameter and weighs 450 kg when empty.
"Open a new way of sailing"
Inside, on 6 m2 of living space, a sleeping area, a kitchenette, a desk of cards and a side storage. On the ground, "my television" , he amused himself, in this case a porthole that will "see the fish. It's going to be a permanent show . "
The former paratrooper, who wandered to Africa where he also worked as a private pilot and national park warden, wants to "open a new way of sailing" , allowing himself to drift with the winds and currents.
Around December 20, the triathlon lover, slim and muscular, intends to embark from the Canaries to arrive some three months later "I do not know exactly where, between Barbados and Guadeloupe," he said to AFP.
"Shipwrecked volunteer"
The project's goal ? "To live this feeling of freedom, to admire the riches of the aquatic fauna" , says this lover of nature. But originally, a book he read and reread, the Alain Bombard, this doctor who crossed the Atlantic alone in 1952 by feeding on fish and plankton.
But "my name is not Alain Bombard. I would not have gone with him at the time , " says Savin. The septuagenarian embarks thus with a liferaft, a satellite phone, tags "that will give my position" , freeze-dried food, a harpoon to fish, a watermaker. And some half bottles of Saint-Emilion to celebrate Christmas and his 72 years on January 14th.
"The barrel will roll over"
The adventure is also scientific. It will drop markers of the JCOMMOPS (international organization observing the oceans) to study the currents, will itself be tested for loneliness in a closed environment. Even the wine will be tested: Bordeaux in a terracotta amphora will be compared to the same wine remained on the ground. The barrel has already been tested on the basin but "my only regret is that I have not done tests in extreme conditions" . Because the future navigator expects to be tossed by the winds: "the barrel will roll" , he amuses himself.
His only fear, orcs "who are aggressive" . As for the solitude, it will be furnished with a mandolin, books and the writing of a logbook which will then be published.
The adventure, sponsored by the Girondin manufacturer Barrels Boutes, is still seeking sponsors to complete a budget of 60,000 euros. As for the public, it can follow the browser on a dedicated website (www.atlantique-tonneau.com/follow me)