She has misplaced her course just a little, the picture of the crackpots of the ocean of course au large. The solitary and taciturn sailor, shaggy on a quay after lengthy months at sea with birds, stars and flying fish for under firm, has lived. As a result of in the present day, the boats go quicker than fish and the wind, and go away of their wake the pictures of Epinal. A sense supported by the discharge ofUltim, beyond the limits, on Novo 19 et Primeand the presentation to Cannes Film Festivalsequence of Vendée Globe, alone around the world. Two TV sequence showcasing ocean racing in all its features.
A welcome revival for an excessive sport at all times searching for contemporary air, and whose economic system is predicated on sponsorship – and subsequently on media publicity. And a recipe that succeeded Formula 1one other mechanical sport, with the success of Drive to survive since 2019.
“All of us dream of a “Drive to Survive” in ocean racing”
“Certainly, all of us dream of a “Drive to outlive”, hope with 20 Minutes Julie Coutts, common director of OC Sport, organizer specifically of the Route du Rhum. There are a lot of similarities with F1: human efficiency, excessive know-how, monetary points, and an entire storytelling which may, informed in sequence, tackle one other dimension – the rivalries, the technological secrets and techniques, the behind the scenes…” “This has given a giant facelift and pep to F1”, additionally notes Thomas Ruyant, title holder of the Route du Rhum in Imoca and one of many six skippers within the sequence filmed throughout the Vendée Globe 2024 in Alone around the globeproduced by Pink Bull and France TV. “What is definite is that there are lots of issues to inform, particularly behind the scenes, which is sort of loopy. That an actor like Pink Bull is dedicated to a venture is a good sign,” rejoices the skipper, at the moment searching for a brand new sponsor after Advens.
“A sequence on the Ultims, that are the F1 of ocean racing, provides one other imaginative and prescient of the game and helps to grasp its complexity,” provides Justine Metux, eighth within the final Vendée Globe. Something that brings visibility to offshore racing is constructive, however I do not know if a sequence like that may have as a lot impression because the one made by Netflix on the time,” provides the skipper of TeamWork and Snef.
Closed cockpits, helmeted skippers
The visible facet of crusing has developed considerably, notably during the last decade. The sailboats fly due to their foils and attain 100 km/h for the Ultim. The cockpits are very protected, even closed, and the cockpits are backlit by screens with a number of values, winds, instructions and speeds. “The arrival of monohull foils has helped change the picture. The boats are quicker, extra violent, making this sport much more bodily and dedicated,” understands Thomas Ruyant.
And extra aesthetically pleasing on display screen: “It’s an extremely highly effective sport that has been informed little or no,” provides Frédéric Joly, director of Model content material at Mediawan, which co-produced with Precise Ultim, past the boundaries. “It’s not purely a sports activities sequence, however one which tells a human journey and which can enable Precise, we hope, to broaden its viewers.”
SailGP and its catamarans at 100 miles an hour
Whereas offshore racing prepares its main tv tales, a novelty in sports activities crusing has already charted its course since 2021. SailGP, flying catamaran championshipis broadcast reside by Canal+. The very brief rounds are performed very near the coast and the general public, put in in stands in Saint-Tropez, Sidney, San Francisco or Plymouth. The boats go at 100 km/h with astonishing accelerations, epic overtakes, generally collisions. And above all, in line with an interview within the journal Yacht of Russell Coutts, the founding father of the sequence, half of the groups could be worthwhile.
” I like. They’ve managed to make this sport very visible and watchable by everybody. However SailGP and ocean racing are two very completely different sports activities even when there are technological bridges. The races are very brief, whereas mine last as long as 80 days,” notes Thomas Ruyant.
“Maybe a poetry that doesn’t exist in F1”
The bounds of the comparability with F1 would subsequently be discovered right here. “What makes folks dream about F1 is that the vehicles go at 300 km/h and also you drive a Twingo,” estimates Jean-Paul Mouren, a skipper simply over 70 years previous who has practically 30 Solitaire du Figaro races on the clock. “On a ship, there’s something of the order of the unreasonable, of man confronting nature. Maybe an class, a poetry that doesn’t exist in F1.” Will this poetry, which helped to forge the legend of offshore racing on the flip of the Eighties, be drowned out in trendy media and sports activities, the place skippers at the moment are extra typically engineers than writers, crew members as a lot videographers as sailors? “There’ll at all times be room for essentially the most poetic amongst sailors,” Jean-Paul Mouren needs to imagine. And will probably be she or he who will win the media stakes to proceed their races,” the Marseillais nonetheless thinks.
Grabbing the media stakes is one of the best salvation for these concerned in main offshore races. What Julie Coutts summarizes: “A greater marketed product, with a big viewers, is what companions dream of. Crusing was troublesome to entry for most of the people, with a robust tradition of the solitary, silent sailor. However we’re in a brand new period and we’ve got understood that we’ve got to exist within the manufacturing of content material, photographs, movies.” In different phrases: go along with the course of the wind.
