© © Jean-Louis Carli / Alea / Retour à La Base

Nicolas Lunven crossed the finish line of the first edition of Retour à La Base in eighth position this Monday, December 11 at 0328hrs UTC. The French skipper of Holcim-PRB sailed the 3,500nms course in 10 days 11 hours 28 minutes 54 seconds, at an average speed of 13.91 knots. The well known sailor and liked sailor from Lorient who was only appointed  as skipper of the IMOCA in September actually raced 4,609.59 miles at an average speed of 18.33 knots.

As the new skipper of Holcim-PRB, Nico Lunven sailed out to Martinique for the solo transatlantic race as it is an essential step in his race to qualify for his first Vendée Globe. And the outbound delivery with a crew did allow him to familiarise himself with the Verdier design which finished runner up on The Ocean Race this summer.

“It’s time to race the others,” said Lunven who sailed The Ocean Race on Boris Herrmann’s Malizia-Seaexplorer on his arrival in Martinique. Needing to be cautious and finish the race as this was just the very start of his race for miles and Vendée Globe qualification, Lunven explained,  “My goal will probably be not to get into too much wind and to stay further south, in order to have a safer route,” And he applied that initial plan the letter throughout his ten and a half days racing.

On the Fort-de-France start  line he is conservative, “The start was average, even bad, I can say that,” he admitted a day later. But before long he was side by side with Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) “Fortunately I’ve recovered well, and sailed quite well”.

Indeed for all that Lunven is in the Top 5 in the first half of the race but he does stay  south in order to avoid the strong winds, learning the nuances of his boat. Even so he gets a taste of the big conditions. He is fatigued as reaches the Azores and still in 5th position, he headed south. His fiend and rival Herrmann wonders: “I don’t understand what Nico went to look for in the South, but as he is very good at strategy, I am afraid that he saw something that has escaped me.”

The truth is more basic, his sleep alarm failed and he admitted later his exhausted body slept six hours straight and he has strayed a little further south, losing contact with his near rivals in the north. But, in eighth, Lunven achieves his main goals, learning his boat on his first solo miles and making sure he checks the essential box as he seeks qualification for the Vendée Globe. 

LUNVEN ON THE PONTOON:

“It went pretty well, I didn’t do too many stupid things, I didn’t break much,  almost nothing I think. I made a good list of things to improve, optimize or review on the boat because of course had actually sailed very little on it before starting the race. I take a lot of positives from it, especially my largely validated qualification for the Vendée Globe, since now all I have to do is start a race next year.

From a sporting point of view, I was pretty good in the match at the start, until we went downwind. Because I was just learning the boat, I was not completely in the same rhythm as the top guys in terms of speed, and I also made the deliberate choice to stay where there was a little less wind to gradually get the measure of the boat. In the end, there is a bit of disappointment of not being in the fight but I sailed in the varied wind ranges and missed the big winds notably in the Azores where I shifted to the South knowing I was going to lose ground. But I was able to try different sail configurations, use the whole set of sails and see how the boat handles.”