© C Favreau / Défi Azimut - Lorient Agglomération

Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut), 2nd in the 48H Défi Azimut Lorient Agglomération

"It was another great race and a great battle on the water with Charlie and Jérémie. Over the second half of the course, we saw APIVIA just take off. I’m happy though. It’s my first 2nd place in IMOCA in solo format, which is a victory for me! There’s still room to improve and the year’s not over...

The boat makes very fast headway downwind, which is the point of sail where there’s the least difference between us. In terms of outright speed, all three of us are pretty similar, but I lost a fair amount of ground during the sail changes. After that, Charlie is very quick on a fast reach and a close reach. I tried to reposition myself slightly, which worked pretty well, except against APIVIA, which is just cheeky at that point of sail (laughs). I got precious little sleep, 1 hour over this fine 48H course, but I love this state of being in another orbit after a race!

Yes, I have another boat in build, which has been imagined with all the team and is bang on schedule. For now though, I’m very pleased with this LinkedOut, which I get a lot of enjoyment out of and right now my thoughts are on the next Route du Rhum. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to continue sailing right up to the Rhum, so I don’t lose the rhythm I have with the boat and I can optimise the many minor details still left to tweak. The boat is very honed and it’s hard to make her any better. I have a fine machine and a great team, everything I need to be ready for the start on 6 November. I can’t wait!"

 

Jérémie Beyou (Charal), 3rd in the 48H Défi Azimut Lorient Agglomération

“The aim was to complete the course without too many glitches. I had a few incidents aboard but, overall, I’m very pleased. I’d hoped to be in on the action and that’s what I did. To stand a chance of beating Thomas and especially Charlie, you have to sail an absolutely flawless race. That isn’t the case yet, but I fully intend to stay on the podiums in the upcoming races.

It was my first race with this boat. She handled well but she’s very sensitive to the slightest tweak with the trimming. I was fairly at ease on certain points of sail and I was kind of finding my bearings in relation to the others. She’s a boat capable of going very fast, but you really need to be trimming her constantly. We’re on page one of discovering this boat and we’ve got off to a pretty good start.

The boat has rudders which are quite unique and very big, requiring additional trimming. There’s more trimming required of the foils, the keel and the ballast too… All this trimming has a very big influence and the slightest degree of modification has repercussions. I had a few issues with my autopilot and we were slamming quite a lot at times. As a result, I didn’t get much rest as I’m not yet familiar with the boat’s noises, so I stayed awake, poised to intervene quickly. All in all though, I was able to give it my best shot and once I’ve nailed all the trimming, I’ll be more confident.”