Arkéa Ultim Challenge - Brest day 42: Speaking to round the world pioneer Olivier de Kersauson

Sailing a trimaran around the world, solo racing, conquering the planet, and reflecting on the amazing level of progress. This Saturday multihull pioneer Olivier de Kersauson shares his fulsome enthusiasm for the race and multihull exploits and adventures over the years.

How do you, a former round-the-world multihull record holder, view this round-the-world race, the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest?

Olivier de Kersauson: I absolutely love it ! The course is fantastic; it is the ultimate in terms of what is feasible. The solo round-the-world passage in a monohull is a story; sailing a multihull around the world is another story. But sailing solo on a multihull at an average of 28 knots around the world is just mind-blowing. In the entire history of competitive sailing, there has never been an event of this size. And it's very nice.

We (our generation, editor's note) worked a lot on multihulls, we took risks, we invented things that didn't exist, and this generation has continued the work, developing things that didn't exist. They have continued to take risks sailing on the most challenging boats, but also with a most intelligent dimension. All this requires big design offices, clever engineers, big investments by sponsors who are there and who will make risk investments.

As we look to new discoveries, new challenges we are in a world which also offers great disappointments and - thank God, we see it today - moments of records, of joy, of perfection through these unique sailing moments that until now did not exist.

In your opinion how should we interpret this race?

Olivier de Kersauson: There are two perspectives on competitive sailing competition. The first is one of pure sport, as we see on the Route du Rhum for example. The second is more about inventions, risk, discovery. This is what we pursued in our day, designing and building boats which did not exist, by putting carbon on the water. And that is what all these teams, sailors and sponsors continue to do. This makes me very happy, I find it very intelligent, and very remarkable. It's not just talk, hot air, it is real life action.

The six sailors entered in this race are all of very high mental, moral and intellectual level. It's the best you can do in boat racing, on the most interesting course in the world. Around the world is geographically, and therefore meteorologically, the possibility of going across 90% of the meteorological phenomena that exist on our planet.

By comparison other races are quite simple in terms of weather: the Route du Rhum is about the trade winds. The passage around the world takes you through a series of real, different and strong meteorological phenomena.

The deep south has totally unique reserves of violence, the finish back in Brittany in February-March can also be very demanding, and you cross the Equator twice as well as the Doldrums it's fascinating.

You see the state of the sailors in the images they share, you can see the marks that their efforts cause....

Olivier de Kersauson: It's not a game. It is stressful. Tabarly said he would never go around the world in a multihull. It's so violent. Where I envy these guys of this time is that they don't have to fix stuff all the time. We spent our time repairing the rigging, changing steel elements. Here they have already solved a lot of technical problems. Their navigation is violent, demanding, but they perhaps don't spend their time repairing.

Remember Peter Blake, who won many things, the America's Cup, the Whitbread, said that you had not really sailed until you have sailed around the world on a multihull. It was interesting to hear that coming from someone who wasn't really from 'our' world. He came, he saw and left victorious.

What memories do you have of your solo round the world record in a multihull (in 125 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes and 33 seconds aboard Un autre regard (ex-Poulain), a 23 meter trimaran)?

Olivier de Kersauson: Looking back now these times only seem good to me ! At the time it seemed really interesting to me, sometimes hostile. In the south, there were times when it was total warfare. It's part of the sport. When we see the physique of a very high level, very experienced sailor, like Coville, it's because we had to put in a lot of effort, physically and mentally. This is his eighth round the world passage in a multihull: he has so much experience facing these tough sailing conditions, but he is also very well prepared, because the level is so high.

We don't hear them complain because they are sailors who are on top of what they experience thanks to their enormous knowledge. It is no surprise for them, what they are going through. We see that the skippers bodies and souls have given a lot, and it's magnificent.

It seems possible that Charles Caudrelier might win in a bit less than fifty days; your world record first out was 125 days. Taking into account everything, the level of physical commitment, the dimensions of the adventure, the speed and length of the effort, can we compare these two feats in terms of out and out merit?

Olivier de Kersauson: Things are not comparative, but things are super simple. Who, at the time, had done better than me? Who will do better than Charles? That's it, it stops there. The rest is interpretation by people who only had the tools of the moment. I had no GPS, no phone, no weather forecast. From time to time, I managed to call Claude France in Brest, who gave me some ideas.

Today's technologies are a very different world. But it is still about the world of effort, of exploit. Being the very best of your time is the challenge. This sport is really interesting because it is a mechanical sport. Human performance makes a lot of progress when mechanics progress. Thare determines what happens in our sport.

You experienced this progression over three stages and with Sport-Elec and Geronimo later. Does the technological acceleration of recent years seem amazing to you?

Olivier de Kersauson: The development of foils changed everything. We had considered putting some foils at the time, but it would have meant a weight of 400 kilos per float, for a return on performance which was uncertain, certainly not a direct linear gain on a round the world. There had been work done by Hervé Devaux at HDS in Brest, the Americans were also working on it, we were learning things about their structure, their leading edges, their curvature too. From the days of Paul-Ricard and Tabarly with Côte d'Or, there were times when his boat, at a given speed, went three knots faster than mine. But so too there were times when I was knot faster than him, for longer.

The development of the foil has been extremely important in the ability of today's boats to get up to their current speeds. This is an important development. The other is the evolution of budgets. In our time, we had to choose the area we were going to seek to improve. With the budgets they have, the following teams have had the opportunity to examine and improve in the full 360 degrees, in all the different areas, much, much wider than those to which we were confined to. In our time, we started by making long floats - this was not the case for all multihulls; then, we integrated canting masts, then we developed composites, then developed carbon masts.

And, fifteen years ago, let's say, with Geronimo, we developed shapes which were adopted and the proof that these ideas were right is that there are pieces of Geronimo still racing around the world (on Adagio). But the real question is: what is the budget that will allow us to keep searching and what areas to focus on?

In your opinion, does the race have the following it deserves?

Olivier de Kersauson: "It's totally not right at all that there is so little talk about it. We have to accept the reality that the news is so disrupted that the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest is almost perceived with the same news value as a train that arrives on time. Great things always rise to the surface. It is unfortunate that the bad things make the news. The worst thing is that a trimaran, if it turns over, is finished.

The ability of these boats to fly is amazing! A few years ago I sailed with Thomas Coville. I saw these boast have evolved We were at thirty knots and we were looking around at everything else. This is the ultimate test. Since we're talking, there's something that bothers me a little. We do not highlight enough the work of research, and that of sponsors.

On the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest, we only find sponsors who take risks: we don't have a big culture of 32 meter boats, we only have a little experience. So these sponsors take the risk, and they finance this most intelligent form of sailing, the most inventive. These people who support these boats which go around the world at an average of 25-28 knots are nothing short of remarkable."

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Discussion during Arkéa Ultim Challenge - Brest - Ultim Adagio - photo © Alexis Courcoux