Europe 1 2:56 p.m., November 7, 2021

Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt are among the 158 skippers on the start line of the Transat Jacques-Vabre this Sunday noon.

Before setting off, they confided, at the microphone of Thierry Dagiral on Europe 1, on their physical and mental preparation for the legendary transatlantic race which is contested in doubles.

INTERVIEW

To take the start of the Transat Jacques-Vabre, the only duo offshore race, you must not go wrong with your partner.

The Breton Jérémie Beyou and the Marseillais Christopher Pratt understood this well.

"A nice mix" of regions of France as they laugh about it since the two friends have been sailing together for many years.

The 15th edition will mark their third participation in the race together.

“We've been sailing together for 15 years,” they admit.

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A well-established duo

On board the Imoca Charal, Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt set sail on Sunday noon. "We have automatisms that have been created for years," they admit. "It actually allows us to be very efficient." A complicity that will certainly be one of their strength in this ordeal. "It allows us to immediately find our marks when we go to sea and also, in the preparation phases, to really focus on the development of the machine, of our Imoca Charal. We really focus on that more than on the functioning of our duo that we know is quite well established. "

Their boat: an Imoca, a monohull sailboat 18 meters long, with a mast 30 meters high and a draft of 4.5 meters.

"When we returned from the Vendée Globe, we built a unit that allowed us to identify all the important performance criteria for this Transat Jacques-Vabre."

Among these criteria: observations on the sails, on the bow of the boat, the inclination of the mast and the displacement of weights inside the boat.

"We are an old couple"

How to prepare psychologically to live 15 days, 24 hours a day with the other?

A question that makes both browsers smile.

"We're a bit of an old couple," they say.

A friendship that is not without risks either.

"Our weak point can be knowing each other so well, and that it works in the blink of an eye, that we could stop talking to each other."

"As in couples, we went to see a psychologist," they say.

"A psychologist who gradually put his finger on it: you have to keep talking even if sometimes it's to say things that are not very important."

Direction Martinique

The race will have a classic course before turning 90 degrees for the two skippers. Cross the North Atlantic, pass through Ecuador and head to an island called Fernando de Noronha, in northeastern Brazil. "This island, we are going to bypass it and then move towards the finish in Martinique", they specify. 

A race that will perhaps allow Jérémie Beyou to take his revenge, when he was forced to turn around after the start during the last Vendée Globe.

"It's still a great pride to have managed to leave because the team managed to repair the boat, now I cannot hide that there is still a little frustration not to have been at the head of the fleet. and to have lived this battle between Yannick Bestaven and Charlie Dalin from afar, "he says.

"This time around, I would like it to go a little better and show what we're capable of."