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Preface: Jean-Pierre Mouligne and Cray Valley were the winners of Class II in the recent Atlantic Alone race. The race was from Falmourth Engalnd to Charleston SC. You can follow this link to visit the Cray Valley Website. Before J.P. left, Torresen Sailing Site had the chance to ask this record holding sailor questions about the upcoming Around Alone.
Torresen Sailing Site: What made you decide "I want to
sail around the world"?
This is
a project that I have had for a long time. I really have dreamed of doing the BOC
since the first one in 1982 and have worked on this particular race since 1990.
Torresen Sailing Site: What do you think the best qualities of
your boat are?
The boat is well built and well prepared. It is very fast on a
reach with apparent wind angle between 60 and 110 degrees.
Torresen Sailing Site: What is your plan for nutrition during the race?
I am taking mostly freeze-dried food to keep weight to a minimum and I
am looking into a balanced diet with lots of carbohydrates.
Torresen Sailing Site: What will your watch/sleep schedule be?
My experience is that the watch/sleep schedule should stay flexible. In areas
where you need to be on the lookout, I will sleep at the Nav station which is quite
comfortable for a period of 15-20 minutes. Away from the shipping lane and in areas
of settled weather, I usually sleep up to two hours at a time, but never more.
Torresen Sailing Site: Comment on this description of
the race course: While legs 1 and 4 are important, they are essentially delivery
voyages to and from the southern ocean, the site of the real racing.
I
do not feel that legs 1 and 4 are merely delivery to the southern ocean. In terms
of danger, that is certainly true. The southern ocean is by far the area
where you run the risk of the most trouble. However, from a pure racing
standpoint, the first and last legs are extremely important. They are very tactical
with the crossing of the doldrums and they are where the most gain
or loss can be made. In the southern ocean legs 2 and 3, pretty much all the
good boats go at the same speed and the key becomes not to break anything serious.
Torresen Sailing Site: What is the feeling when you leave the deck to sleep
and your boat continues to self sail through the ocean?