Trying to pre-empt as much as possible with spare equipment

During a round the world race, even with the best preparation possible, suffering from a few minor technical glitches is virtually unavoidable. That’s why Giancarlo Pedote and the 32 other sailors competing in the Vendée Globe have carefully drawn up a list of spare kit to carry aboard the boat. The list isn’t as easy to draw up as it might seem due to the obvious issues with extra weight and space, so it’s vital they make choices. “The spare kit is actually a big deal. We’ve been working on it for a long time and we zipped up the last bags on Wednesday after a final review with Giancarlo”, explains Rémi Fermin, the team’s boat-captain. “To save weight, we’ve been careful to avoid doubling up on certain things. However, what we haven’t done is to compromise with any elements likely to cut the race short”, highlights Rémi. For instance, no longer having a working desalinator would mean that Giancarlo would be deprived of freshwater or the loss of his rudders would prevent him from being able to steer his boat. “Therefore, we focused on these points. We’ve also worked hard on the replacement sequences. Clearly, we’ve tried to pre-empt potential issues as much as possible, so that Giancarlo is all clued up and in a position to overcome them on his own at sea”, continues the boat-captain, who reckons that there’s around 150kg of spare equipment aboard. “It’s a good compromise. The advantage on Prysmian Group is that a lot of things can be combined with each other, like the autopilots for example. That’s a strength”.