Guillemot modifies Safran ready for Vendee Globe
Four months from now, the Vend?e Globe will be just a few days old. It is certainly not far off and it is time for the final summer refit for Safran, Marc Guillemot's monohull. To make further improvements to the monohull, all the appendages are going to be changed. and as always with the help of some of the Group's companies.
'Marc Guillemot - Safran (The Artemis Transat) Photo: Matt Dickens/onEdition/The Artemis Transat'
'We're not building a new boat, but it is almost as if we were.' Obviously, Thierry Brault, the head of the Safran Sailing Team was joking, but underneath the surface there is a certain degree of truth in what he says. Work began on her after her return from the United States and the Transat. She was taken out of the water in late June and now Marc Guillemot's monohull is benefiting from an important overhaul. All of the appendages or almost are going to be changed. Thierry Brault explains: 'We're fitting new daggerboards, new rudders, a new boom, a new keel.' While there is no new mast, the running and standing rigging are also to be replaced by new. Everything was studied by the designer, Guillaume Verdier, with the calculations being carried out once again by companies inside the SAFRAN Group.
Work on Safran will continue throughout July, the goal being to relaunch the boat at the end of the month on 26th or 27th. 'The overall idea is to reduce the weight on top to add some below,' thus stepping up the performance, explains Thierry Brault. 'Having a lighter boom enables us to transfer weight into the keel.' The rudders will be made of a '3D weave', a technology coming from the group, which is used for the blades in jet engines. 'By weaving carbon in this innovative way, we obtain better resistance to shock and above all it prevents an impact developing into serious damage, as can happen with traditional methods of construction,' summed up Pascal Chadail, Safran's project leader.
This considerable amount of work is not all. Far from it. Thus, Safran will be put into true round the world single-handed mode. For example: fuel tanks, which have to be larger than for a transatlantic race need to be installed. A desalinisation unit producing fresh water will be connected up. Solar panels are going to be fitted and the entire computer sytem checked over. Special arrangements are being be put in place to make manoeuvres easier and improve the skipper's comfort. Thus, alongside the two 'cable cars' making it easier to move equipment from one side to another during a gybe), 'we're going to be installing extra boxes and bags and additional storage facilities.' Marc Guillemot will of course, be taking on board many more supplies and more equipment for this three month round the world voyage than for a twelve day Atlantic crossing. 'We're also going to be giving him a sort of tent in the living quarters, to reduce the interior volume and allow him to heat the space up more easily in the difficult month he will be spending in the deep south.where it is not likely to be very warm.'
The modifications to the keel and appendages will require Marc Guillemot to carry out another qualifying passage, which he will need to do before 1st September. So it will be in August that the yachtsman from La Trinit? will carry out this task. For the moment, in particular, his schedule involves doing sports (often in the morning) to work on his physical condition. At the same time, he is also continuing to work on the new weather tools with which he will calculate his route, as, if you needed reminding, the Vend?e Globe is a single-handed non-stop race without any assistance, including weather analysis. A few days holiday with the family, a qualifying passage, which should last a good week or so and it will soon be time to think of Les Sables d'Olonne, and the start of the race. The countdown is on and the clock is ticking. Today, 9th July, we are just 122 days away from casting off, setting out on the great adventure that is already being referred to as The Race of the Century.
www.vendeeglobe.org
by Event media 
Turners Beach, TAS
