A little tense but above all focused, Jean-Baptiste Daramy
is preparing to take the Route du Rhum this Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. This is the second entry
of the Luzian skipper. As in 2018, he will compete the queen of single-handed transatlantic races
on the monohull “Chocolats Pariès – Screb” 12 meters long. The start of the 12th edition of the Route du Rhum, initially scheduled for Sunday, had to be postponed due to worsening weather conditions. Three days later, 138 skippers will cast off for Guadeloupe. They must travel 3,543 nautical miles, the equivalent of 6,562 kilometers between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre. France Bleu Pays Basque contacted Jean-Baptiste Daramy a few hours before the start.
I won’t be wearing shorts and a T-shirt throughout the crossing!
As the start of the race draws near, Jean-Baptiste Daramy feels rushed, excited, focused… a bit of all of this at once! “We are preparing this for a year and a half
. So concentrated but a little tense! I want to get involved right from the start.” Postponement of departure,
initially scheduled for Sunday, allowed the skipper from Luz to spend some time with his family, while keeping the sporting routine every morning. “It’s a good thing that the start was postponed. This allowed us not to hurt ourselves, not to damage the boat. not why it’s going to be a race where I’ll be wearing shorts and T-shirts throughout the crossing! There are big fronts, big depressions to negotiate.”
Weather conditions
The weather is a crucial factor for skippers. For the start, she should be lenient. But from the tip of Brittany, Jean-Baptiste Daramy will have choices to make : “go due west to look for big depressions, or there is a route further south where you are less likely to find yourself in a dead end in the days to come”. The Luzien will be fixed 24 hours after departure. He will then spend 15 to 20 days at sea, he who is racing in the class CLASS40
. “I’m pretty confident in my ability to go boating in strong winds. It’s my seventh transat
. So I can see what awaits me. Afterwards, there is still the weather, the competitors, everything has to be rewritten. It’s super exciting!”
I want to play my part as well as possible to do a great Route du Rhum like four years ago
However, Jean-Baptiste Daramy did not no particular goal : “I have a boat that is 2013, so it’s a bit like four years ago: on paper, I have to finish 30ᵉ. Four years ago, I had finished 10ᵉ
. So we’ll do the accounts in Guadeloupe!”
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Find the full interview with Jean-Baptiste Daramy here
.