Gabart and Laperche: “We were up against people stronger than us”

François: “We’re pleased to be here and have crossed the Atlantic, but a bit disappointed, as we would have liked to have won. We were up against people stronger than us. I don’t think we missed any strategic or tactical choices, but they were fast, very fast downwind. They sailed well and deserved to win. We are going to have to continue to progress and I hope Tom will win the next one. This has been a long series of second places since 2018. The positive thing is that each time, we’re not far off it. We’re close to winning, which is great. We have had some fantastic races, got it right, enjoyed ourselves, but it would nice to win.”

Tom: “Two years ago, I said how much I loved this transatlantic race and that sailing with François had been my best experience. I can say the same thing again this evening. We spent a lot of time together and clocked up a lot of miles ay high speed. The boats are built for that and we really enjoyed it. The match between 3 or 4 similar boats was intense. We were delighted to be the first around Ascension Island. Then, there was the downwind run. It isn’t very often that you race downwind over such a huge distance. It’s harder in terms of speed, but that is the way it is. It’s up to us to make progress.” 

François: “We always fought hard to try to win. For 24 or maybe 36 hours, we have understood that without an incident in the race, it would be hard to catch up. During the night, they had some clouds which were a bit tricky to pass through. These boats are fast and you can quickly regain ground…

It was an incredible experience. This is probably the first time we have flown for so long. We’re not too tired, as conditions meant we didn’t have to spend all our time in the cockpit and we took it in turns.”

Tom: “In general, the boat sails well. There are no major problems to deal with. Just a general check-up. I’ll bring the boat home with a crew and we’ll be back in Brittany in fifteen days. We’ll carry out a thorough check for three weeks and then bring her to Brest for Christmas.” 

François: “What is positive too is that all the boats will probably finish with some minor problems here and there, but nothing major. The start wasn’t that easy, but we saw that the boats are able to face rough conditions, even if that didn’t last too long. The weather at the end meant that the gaps widened in the fleet. If you look at the exit from the Doldrums, there were five of us within 250 miles. With the performance of these boats, that represents just a few hours. I don’t know if it was a pleasure to watch from ashore, but we certainly enjoyed it.”