Benjamin is not hiding his pleasure at being back home. Although he admits that it took him a little while to get the hang of things, he's ready for the new season, which will start with the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre with Corentin Horeau, a former Figaro mate. Well placed in the mileage rankings, the skipper can choose which races he takes part in.
And for that, taking a break was simply necessary: Β« The summer holidays have done us a lot of good. It's really recharging to be back home. We took my girlfriend's parents' boat with some friends and family to go to Yeu Island, where we stayed for a week.
We completely got away from it all and it did us a lot of good. We've been doing DIY and we're just happy to be here. Back after this break, Benjamin seems rested and confident: Β« We carried out a major refit this summer. We've got new rudders, we've changed the foils and we've also carried out a major check-up after The Ocean Race. Our aim was really to introduce a lot of new features now so that we could validate them in the Transat Jacques Vabre. That way, this winter, when we take the boat out of the water, we'll be more in the phase of checking her over, making minor repairs We'll be working on the details, because we'll already have done the 'heavy lifting'.
And we hope that this organisation will give us a lot of peace of mind for what is to come. Some skippers are better than others at switching off some of the critical brain functions, trusting the innate instincts and just letting the IMOCA go fast.
When everything is telling them to take the foot off the accelerator they are able to just maintain that life on the absolute edge for longerβ¦. His channel was very differentβ¦very, very different. Tens of thousands ofβ¦. Few people appreciate that the nearby Olonne marshes form a veritable laboratory for blue carbon. Coastal salt marshes are low-lying, gently sloping lands found alongβ¦.
