The sky is grey, matching the gruesome concrete of the giant Second World War-era German submarine pens on the dockside at Lorient, as the Rookie sailors of the Artemis Offshore Academy arrive for another session of cold January training.
Credit : E Allaire
As they gather for their briefing on the pontoon, the southwesterly wind is rattling the halyards on the racing boats all around them. This is a veritable museum of modern racing machinery including the monster trimaran Banque Populaire, Open 60s built for the Vendee Globe single-handed round the world race, and new Class 40 monohulls just back from the Route du Rhum transatlantic race.
It is an inspiring back-drop for the young Brits setting out on their voyage to become potentially world class solo ocean racing sailors. They are training on 33ft Figaro monohulls but one day they may get the chance to take command of their own Open 60 in the Vendée.
The plan for the morning is a little more modest; basic boat-handling and manoeuvre training under the watchful eye of French coach, Tanguy Leglatin, of the Lorient Grand Large short-handed sail training school. Leglatin is intent on getting the young Brits – Rob Bunce from Warminster, Robin Elsey from Truro and Andrew Baker from Saintfield in Northern Ireland – to the point where they can proficiently handle their boats in any weather and regardless of how tired they might be.
“Tanguy is drilling into us that it does not all have to be fast and furious,” says Bunce who has forgotten his socks but, despite the cold, seems quite happy with just his traine. “There is an element of slow and steady – someone could sail two knots faster than you round the course but then broach (lose control) at the last mark – and you would beat them.”
The talk is quite technical. Leglatin asks about rig tensions, rudder angles, mast stability and rake and other key set-up parameters. Then, mixing French with English, he sets out a couple of exercises he wants the sailors to complete during the session off Lorient.
To start with they will work on an upwind exercise and then they will work intensively on spinnaker hoist and drop routines – potentially a handful in the building southwesterly. “It is important during training that you make some mistakes but do not trash the boat,” Leglatin summarizes.
In the event Baker found the conditions in the bay outside the harbour challenging and was the first of the rookies back at his mooring with a spinnaker wrap around the forestay of his blue and white Artemis-branded boat to sort out.
Like the others, the Northern Irishman is also enjoying learning about single-handed sailing in France and from a harbour where so many of the top campaigns in this part of the sport are based. He cited visiting a local shop to hire a wetsuit. When the shop owner realized Baker was a ‘Figaro sailor’, he let him have the suit for free. “I think the people are a lot more enthusiastic here about this sport,” he said.
In addition to their sailing training, the rookies are learning how to look after and maintain their boats, they are being coached in meteorology and they are required to keep to an active fitness programme including swimming and running.
The goal for all three is to make the startline for the prestigious four-stage Figaro Solo grand prix in June. This has been a proving ground for the best French solo sailors for years. The prize for those who do well or even win it, is the chance of a Vendee campaign after that. The question for the young Brits, is whether all of them – or any of them – will make the Figaro startline this year.
By Ed Gorman, Former Times UK Correspondent
From Artemis Offshore Academy
