Volvo OR winners move to foiling Ultime trimaran campaign
by Gitana/Sail-World.com/nz 26 Apr 2019 01:17 BST
26 April 2019
The foiling 32 metre long 23 metre beam trimaran Edmond de Rothschild © Team Gitana
Two Volvo Ocean Race winners, Charles Caudreilier and Franck Cammas have been announced as the co-skippers of the foiling supermaxi trimaran, Edmond de Rothschild replacing the departing Seb Josse.
Earlier it was announced that Josse would be leaving the Gitana Team after an eight year association.
The 32metre long (104ft) Ultime class designed by Guillaume Verdier, has been in the builders shed after losing the bow off the starboard float just before dawn on November 5, 2018 as Edmond de Rothschild was leading the Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe and sailing in 4-5 meters of swell and 30kts of wind.
In a published media release the team make it plain that the Ultim 32/23 class on the world tour starting from the Mediterranean in 2021. "I am very happy to welcome Franck and Charles to the Gitana Team and more broadly to our Group. This choice materializes the combination of two very beautiful talents and also expresses our will to always ensure the successions in all the activities that we undertake.
For two years, with the arrival of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in our family line, Gitana has entered another dimension, that of flying boats. The very complementary profiles of our two sailors will be a great strength to accompany this fabulous unit in its development.
Everyday, I have a very deep conviction in the strength of the collective and the announcement of this pair of skippers at the helm of Gitana 17 comes to testify " said Baron Benjamin de Rothschild in an auto-translation of the media statement from the team which was created in 2000 by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild and his wife Ariane.
From a joint interview with Franck Cammas and Charles Caudreiller, published by Gitana team:
- Why did you accept this unprecedented organization, namely to share the helm of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild ?
Charles Caudrelier: " The first reason is the pair that was offered to me! I know Franck very well and I have always liked to work with him, we did our first regattas together, we have a strong complicity and we are extremely complementary, he always brought me a lot of energy, it is exciting to to be at his side. The second reason is that with the Ultimate we are in a new era, we start to steal, we discover new things; they are heavy projects to wear so it's a dream to be two, when you have to make decisions it's always interesting to share your point of view with someone else. It's really a luxury to perform that did not exist, we find ourselves in an ideal configuration to really bring the boat to its full potential. "
Franck Cammas: « I agreed to share this project with Charles for two essential reasons, the first is that the project is exciting with a successful boat with which we will be able to evolve, in an interesting class and with a powerful team.
And the second, obviously, is that with Charles we know each other perfectly, we have sailed a lot together, we have built beautiful victories together. I really trust in his intellectual honesty and in the reflections we can make together. We know that we will never hide things and we will try to help each other, to stand together and progress together. Both of us are quite humble about what we should do and our environment, we are quite curious, I like his state of mind mind and its operation so this organization suits me very well. "
- How do you envisage this future collaboration?
CC : "I know the Gitana team well, having sailed here between 2013 and 2016 with Sébastien Josse. I know his strengths and weaknesses, how the team works. Franck, he will bring a new look, a new way of doing things, he will revitalize the team because we know that he always exceeds the limits, he is an agitator, but in the good sense of the word, who always wants innovate and move forward. Franck has an expertise and a huge technical background, on my side I know how to create a state of mind and lead men. "
FC: "It's a real chance to be able to collaborate with the Gitana team, it's one of the best competition teams in France and even internationally, with a real experience, a real story, individualities that are extremely powerful. I know we will be able to progress and do ambitious things together. We are now the guarantors of a story that Ariane and Benjamin de Rothschild have built with their family for more than a hundred years through their boats. It is a great pride and at the same time a great responsibility to pursue the story as best as possible; we are aware of this weight of history and this gives us a rather positive stress and the desire to do well. "
- What does the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild represent for you ?
FC: " The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is the best in this size of boat. It is a boat that is a little apart, imagined by an architect different from the rest of the fleet. There is really a basic concept that is very good and that other competitors do not have and that is obviously an advantage. The boat has shown since it was launched and on the last months of sailing a very strong potential. But like all boats, we have to make it evolve, make it progress continuously, the competition is progressing and we have to progress faster than them. I can not wait to get on the water at the bar Maxi Edmond de Rothschild , c ' is a real motivation to go back off after more than eight years of absence. "
CC: "The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is a very innovative boat that is ahead of its time compared to maxi-trimarans of the same generation. He has outstanding performances and is a step above the others because he was imagined without limits and with a real goal of flying, where the others may have remained a little more conservative with more capable Archimedian boats. to fly. This boat was completely oriented around the flight and the result is extraordinary today, we reached speeds that nobody had imagined to be able to support offshore, even at the origin of the project. It is an incredible boat and we know we have an incredible chance to be part of this beautiful project. "
The program for the two skippers is as follows:
Franck Cammas:
2019
August 3 - Rolex Fastnet Race // crew
November 3 - Brest Atlantic (Brest-Rio de Janeiro-Cape Town-Brest) // double
2020
May - The Transat * // solitary
Summer - record North Atlantic // crew or solitaire
Autumn - Trophy Jules Verne // crew
2021
May - June - The Arch (Tour de l'Europe with stopovers) // crew
Around the world, departing from the Mediterranean // crew
Charles Caudreiller
2022
Records (Discovery Route, North Atlantic ...) // crew, lonely
Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe * // solitary
2023
Records (Discovery Route, North Atlantic ...) // crew, solitary
December - Brest Oceans // solitary