Dismantling, reassembling and learning

“We’re continuing with a general overhaul of the boat and we’ve just checked the sails. Everything’s okay but on this type of machine, it’s important to carry out regular in-depth checks”, explains Giancarlo Pedote, known for his rigour and his determination for doing things right, without ever leaving anything to chance. “It’s my temperament. I’m a hardliner!”, jokes the Italian sailor, who is endeavouring to learn every detail of his steed inside out. “I’m very hands-on in the refit phases as I’m keen to know as much as I can about the technical aspects. As such, I spend a lot of time alongside Philippe Echassoux, my boat-captain, feeding off his skills. Dismantling a winch, nosing around the engine… it’s important to know how to do everything when you’re racing offshore, even more so when you’re singlehanded or double-handed, as you may have to do some tinkering at sea. For that reason, it’s always better to have already held a screwdriver and to have at least come up against a problem once before so you can deal with it when the time comes”, explains Giancarlo.