Training with your closest competitors

Training in a group increases improvement. Whether your pursuit is the Olympics or local club racing, working with others – and sharing all information – benefits the group. This approach has been mirrored by the French offshore sailing community, with this report revealing a recent field trip by Team Malizia’s IMOCA skipper Boris Herrmann:

The Pôle “Finistère Course au large” is an offshore sailing training camp that has been in existence for over 30 years. Based in Port-La-Forêt, it originally started in Cap Coz near Concarneau in Brittany, France, with a small group of French sailors training together.

Port-La-Forêt is the harbour of Forêt-Fouesnant, a charming little town with around 3,500 inhabitants, and one could say that the sport was invented and refined there. Over the past two decades, winners of not only the Vendée Globe but also numerous other races were schooled at this renowned training center.

Today, the Pôle’s mission is the training and development of world-class offshore sailors, mainly competing in the Figaro 3 and IMOCA classes.

Funding for the Pôle comes partly from the French government and partly from sponsors. The intake of new recruits from abroad is extremely limited due to the “national” funding of the Pôle, but it’s still an open and lively system.

Team Malizia is fortunate to have been invited, as a non-French team, to participate in the IMOCA training since 2018. Our skipper Boris has prepared for races such as the Route du Rhum, the Vendée Globe, and others. Despite being competitors during races, sailors train with a collective spirit.

Navigation, weather analysis, strategy, physical fitness, medical training, and mental coaching are among the diverse programs, resources, and support offered by the Pôle. Last week, the Pôle organized one of several IMOCA training sessions scheduled for this year. About 13 skippers participated in the training week, which included theoretical classes, a day of inshore training, and a 24-hour offshore training session.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such rough weather here in France… or even elsewhere on this planet,” joked Boris last Wednesday, as rain, strong winds, and choppy seas made the inshore training quite challenging for the sailors and their technical teams supporting their IMOCA race yachts from RIBs.

Despite the bad weather, Boris trained for five hours onboard our Malizia – Seaexplorer with top-level IMOCA boats like Charlie Dalin’s MACIF Santé Prévoyance, Yoann Richhomme’s Paprec Arkea, or Sam Davies’ Initiatives Cœur.

“It was a day of speed testing, we did two long runs, one upwind, one downwind,” explained the German skipper. “Afterwards we debriefed and spoke about the comparisons, which is very interesting to prepare for the upcoming races.”

Thursday brought a welcome change of scenery: As the sun broke through the clouds, the fleet of 13 IMOCA race yachts kicked the day off with a spectacular start next to Les Glénan Islands and accompanying dolphins as they sailed a 24-hour loop offshore in Brittany waters.

“We had a clean start and positioned ourselves nicely to the left of the fleet, and we are currently gaining a little bit on the fleet,” noted Boris. “It’s a nice light-wind day, which doesn’t say much about about the Vendée Globe reality, for instance. But it’s a great pleasure to be out racing really, and we will probably learn a bit more through the night when we do speed tests downwind and things like that.”

However, Boris can’t comment too much on how the training sessions went, as the results and debriefs of the Pôle “Finistère Course au large” are not public. Even though he will be completely alone onboard during this year’s races, with the Transat CIC starting in just over 10 days, Boris trained in a simulated solo mode. This means that Boris did the maneuvering by himself but wasn’t alone on board.

Co-skipper Will Harris and boat captain Stuart Maclachlan were onboard with their skipper, as other teams do, for performance analysis, safety purposes, and ensuring that everything ran smoothly after the winter refit. Dani Devine, our newest team member and content creator, was also on the IMOCA during the week to capture stunning photos and videos.

With the several test sails and the Pôle Finistère training this month, both Boris and our Malizia – Seaexplorer are in top form, and it is clear that they are more than ready to hit the racing circuit once again!