Jean Le Cam and Bruno García qualify

France's Jean Le Cam described the qualification: “Bruno and I have sailed for eight days in a big circle. We sailed down to the North of the Azores and before setting course for Northern Ireland, where we got back from in less than 24 hours. Conditions were good and pleasant”.

 

The yacht hired out from Britain's Mike Golding for this Barcelona World Race must now spend some time in the shipyard for some remodelling, with the ok of her owner. Jean Le Cam said: “The boat sails really well! It was easy and enjoyable. We'll have to see how she does against the recently launched models, but I think she's a fast yacht in every type of condition...we just hope she doesn't slow down after the modifications!”.

 

The 2,800 mile qualifier allowed Le Cam and García to thoroughly check everything and to test the boat out, and that included energy consumption levels. “We're learning something new every day”, said the Frenchman.

 

In terms of the onboard rapport between the skippers, Le Cam said: “We've learned a lot from one another without the need to establish a very strict regime: when there are two of you everyone has to do a bit of everything, you have to be versatile. You can't focus on just one area of expertise”. Bruno Garcia went on to say: “It's easy to sail with Jean: he's very knowledgable...incredibly, in fact! My role is to help him as much as possible. All round this was a fantastic qualifier... I loved it!”.

 

Following a stop-over at the shipyard and a new set of sails Président will be decorated with her new colours and will get back on the water. Le Cam and García will have two weeks to sail her “plus the journey down to Barcelona, which will take a week or so”, said the Frenchman. By then it will be the fifteenth of December, the cut-off for the entries to be at the Port of Barcelona, for the final preparations ahead of the start of this two-handed, round the world adventure.