Yesterday, Francis Joyon was at the Pavillon Royal in Paris alongside Thomas Coville, François Gabart et Yves le Blevec for the press conference organised a month before the start of The Bridge 2017. An opportunity for them to talk about the symbolic duel that lies ahead with the Queen Mary 2, which should be the first to finish under the Verrazano Bridge near New York first, unless conditions are particularly favourable for the Ultime boats. However, we can look forward to a huge battle between the four skippers and their crews, for whom this race represents a real opportunity to see how they all measure up against each other.
Francis Joyon: “The Bridge is an extraordinary challenge set up by the organisers. We always learn a lot from other cultures and this combination of elements is something really positive for the event. As far as the race itself is concerned, I hope that we will be in close contact with the other boats. It looks like being an incredible start, but unfortunately we won’t be able to fully enjoy it, as we will have to be particularly vigilant to avoid the risk of a collision in this narrow race course.”
The Bridge, a first
For the first time since her launch, the Queen Mary 2 will be back to where she was built in Saint-Nazaire and has invited four ultime multihulls, IDEC SPORT, SODEBO, MACIF and ACTUAL to take up the challenge of racing against her over the 3152 mile route to New York.
Three weeks of special events:
16th to 22nd June: Nantes
22nd to 25th June: Saint-Nazaire
1st to 6th July: New York
Start of the race: Sunday 25th June at 1700hrs UTC
