The last statements at the pontoon

It's part of the ritual before casting off: taking the time to share your emotions, recall your ambitions, and, above all, focus. Illustration by Lola Billy, Cindy Brin, Arno Biston, Romain Bouillard, and Corentin Horeau.

Lolo Billy (Région Bretagne - CMB Océane):

"We're fired up, we've just completed the final lap of the stage. Now, it's about putting all those emotions aside and getting back into the race, getting off to a good start at the front and quickly finding my level of play. It's great to be able to take Corentin on board, I'm setting off with peace of mind, now it's up to me to manage myself to work really well with him. Training and passing on knowledge was the goal of our duo, the objective is for him to give me all the tools on the boat to have a great Solitaire du Figaro Paprec solo in September."

 

Cindy Brin (Cap St-Barth):

"I'm 5000% ready! I can't wait to be at the start, I can't wait to hoist the sails, the spinnaker... the whole lot! I'm surrounded by a lot of people in my life and I've been a lot more these last few days. I had a visit from some young people I used to coach when they were kids and they haven't forgotten me. It's really nice to have people at the start today, knowing that we're 8,000 kilometers from home. I hope we're going to have a great experience. The main goal is to get to the end, then with a misunderstanding you don't know what can happen. We can be on the right track, we can miss some. Time will tell."

 

Arno Biston (Article 1):

"We're really looking forward to going. It's a race I've been waiting for for two years. It was one of the races I had to tick off for my Figaro project. It's been over a year since I suggested to Vittoria that they enter the Transat Paprec with me and we've been organizing to do this race. Nothing was decided until the end, but we're really happy to be here with this duo!"

Romain Bouillard (Décrochons la lune):

“Very happy to be leaving, I feel pretty ready and confident. I even slept through the night. I really want to cross this Atlantic! I'm lucky because all the children from the Décrochons la lune association were able to come to the village this weekend, we offered them a moment to participate in the departure, to see it on the water itself. It's an extra motivation to give everything, and they gave me gifts that will surely be useful in the tough times! Irina is a solid crew member for the long term, I know the boat very well, she knows the open sea very well. I think we are a crew of very complementary outsiders.”

Corentin Horeau (Région Bretagne - CMB Océane):

“It’s great to be co-skipper of Lola aboard Région Bretagne - CMB Océane, I really wanted to do this race again. I haven’t won it yet, that’s also why I’m here. But the main objective remains the training of Lola, who is just starting out, trying to pass on as much as possible to her and if we can get a good result at the finish that would be too much, but we’re not putting ourselves under pressure. We’re going to try to get into our race well, we know that sometimes it can be decided from the start because the others won’t wait for us! It’s a route I know and we should hoist the spinnaker after Cape Finisterre so it’s rather pleasant and that’s what we come looking for in this kind of race.”