Europe 1 offers you to take off. And not with anyone: with François Gabart, the record holder of the world tour alone, since December 2017. The 36-year-old skipper takes on Tuesday morning the start of a brand new race, the Brest-Atlantiques, an event in double reserved for the Ultimate class, these giant trimarans willingly qualified Formula 1 of the sea. Before the start, François Bart tells Europe 1 his particular relationship to music, often his only companion trip.
Because yes, when we are engaged in a solo world tour, we have the time, and the desire, to listen to music, swear François Gabart. Better, it helps to focus. "The cockpit of the trimaran Macif is a closed cockpit, so it's a small concert hall that's not that bad, and it's true that for me, the music, it's is emotion, which does not cut me noises of the boat ", explains the navigator.
"The music mixes with the sound of the boat"
"What you have to understand - it's something you do not necessarily realize - is that you use a lot of ears to adjust, to drive a boat," says the skipper again. mixes with the sound of the boat. There is a sort of auditory watch somewhere, rather peculiar. There is a music, a melody, a rhythm that is set up. So when this rhythm is a little broken, interrupted, often it is that there is something on the boat, that it is necessary to intervene.
Classical music, jazz, French song ... François Gabart listens to a bit of everything. The idea is to deceive loneliness, to listen to another voice than his own. So, what playlist for François Gabart when he is off? "What am I going to listen to?" I take mechanically my phone: Mathieu Chedid, Charlotte Cardin, Broken back ... a little bit of everything, "says the browser. "There's even Orelsan, Angela, Bobby McFerrin ... And suddenly, there is no better way to fully appreciate certain music, than this atmosphere off the coast, with this sound that is sometimes super strong."
A blow of heart for Ben Mazuet
A very eclectic taste so, but there is still a singer that François Gabart particularly likes, it is Ben Mazuet, a young songwriter. The skipper listens in a loop. They have a story both. The skipper had a nice surprise during his world tour. "He had released an album a few weeks before the record and in addition Ben Mazuet had made me huge, the gift quite extraordinary, he had sent me, during the record, a song, a medley he had done during the race and that I had received on board the boat the day I had passed Cape Horn, "says François Gabart.
A message that started like this! "François, you do not imagine the honor that is mine to know that you make the world go through my songs, so I wanted to thank you for that and also give you strength, where you are, around the world. Solitary world sailing, here is the best, "said the singer. François Gabart is still all back. "You have to imagine, we're going around the world, we're far from everything, on the boat's mail box I've downloaded a Ben Mazuet song, I'm thinking 'what is it?' And in fact it's had made a little song for me, every time I listen to it, it moves me in an extraordinary way, it is a gift that is fabulous. "