A call from the sea for Newrest-Matmut

One month after its launch, the 60-foot Imoca skippered by Fabrice Amedeo will start heading west at the end of the week and leave its home port of Trinité-sur-Mer to cross the Atlantic to reach New York. The journey will consist of two stages: first, navigation with a crew to the Azores to complete the technical preparation of the boat and conduct all of the usual tests; then Fabrice will sail to the United States almost “solo”, with only Julien Romagné, the boat captain of the Newrest-Matmut sailboat. “The idea was to keep the entire crew aboard until we reach the Azores so we could work on the boat’s reliability. But the crew warned me: I would be doing all of the manoeuvres alone,” Fabrice explained. “Then we will continue in a quasi-solo configuration, with Julien only on board to ensure I am safe.” The duo intends to take advantage of the 3,000 mile journey to continue Fabrice’s technical training. “We are going to review at sea everything I was taught on shore this winter,” Fabrice said. “The electronics, engine, winches … We are going to review everything, but, this time, in a real-life setting.”
The skipper and journalist can rely on his experience in the December solo transatlantic race (Newrest-Matmut came in second in the Saint-Barth–Port-la-Forêt transatlantic race) and has not forgotten that a Vendée Globe win is also based on knowing how to use a toolbox and manage boredom. “It’s true that I am not the same person on board as I was last year and I have made significant progress,” he says. “But I remember Michel Desjoyeaux’s description: ‘sailing the Vendée means encountering at least one problem a day’. I really must improve my technical knowledge now, while training on the water by sailing as much as possible.”
Fabrice will sail off on the New York-Vendée transatlantic race on 29 May. A solo race, on which a “media crew member” will be present: Fred Plisson, a journalist with I Télé.

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