Lorient (AFP)

He had not sailed on his boat + steering wheel + (Charal) for six months. Skipper Jérémie Beyou, one of the big favorites of the next Vendée Globe, has rediscovered the "super ambiance" of the pontoon, refueling with "great energy" to finally get back to sea.

"It's really good, it's great! You find your marks, everything is like when I left it." Jérémie Beyou is happy. When he hoped to return to sailing in mid-April after a long improvement project on his boat, he had to work his brakes due to the epidemic of Covid-19. Since Thursday, his life as a sailor has resumed its course.

"What is really nice is that many boats were launched all week long, it was in the chain and it was quite impressive. There is a great energy anyway, there there are boats sailing, there are smiles behind the masks. You are looking for who is who under the masks, it's funny! There is a great atmosphere on this pontoon, "said Beyou to AFP.

Friday, the navigator and his team - reduced to 4 people on board due to sanitary measures - left their home port of Lorient (Morbihan). A navigation of more than six hours, under a gray sky offering some clearings and with wind (15 knots or 28 km / h), which made it possible to push the boat.

The 18-meter-long monohull - of the Imoca class, the star boats of the legendary solo and non-stop race around the world that is the Vendée Globe - released its new pair of foils, these lateral appendages that allow the sailboat to rise above the water to spin as if it were flying.

Concluding for a first

"We had fun accelerating a bit, it's very conclusive for a first navigation. It was great. In terms of speed, we had to make 26 knots (48 km / h approximately) I think. And we're coming back with zero major concerns, "said Beyou, 3rd in the last Vendée Globe (2016/2017).

"These are navigations where you work a lot, but you enjoy yourself because there is this whole environment, it's really nice to be there".

Beyou was impatient to set foot on his new generation boat, launched in August 2018 and with which he hopes to achieve victory during his third participation in the Vendée Globe, whose departure should be given on Sunday November 8 offshore. Sables d'Olonne (Vendée).

"The reflexes in maneuver came back very quickly. You always find that the sails are too heavy! I lifted weights during confinement but it is not the same when I lift a sail on the boat, there is not much that can replace this maneuver, "he explains.

"And your back is shriveled while you've only sailed for four hours!" He breathes happily.

The 43-year-old sailor left his boat in early December, after finishing third in the Transat Jacques-Vabre. "Baffled" at the start of confinement, he then felt "concerned" about a possible postponement or cancellation of the Vendée Globe but without ever being "worried".

Now he has only one obsession: to prepare himself and his machine for the Vendée Globe.

"These are fantastic boats, we are now almost in flight all the time. We will still go around the planet alone, in very isolated corners, in very dismal seas with these boats, so we really has a mixed performance / reliability that must be at its best. "

© 2020 AFP