Nearly time for the BT IMOCA 60 to flex her muscles…

Blasting downwind towards Belle-Ile at more than 20 knots under full main and A5 gennaker, BT IMOCA 60 skipper Seb Josse was simply radiant, enjoying his first full-on test less than a week after his BT Open 60 touched the water for the first time in Lorient. On deck, the technical team was busy checking rig tensions, keeping an eye on the instruments and testing the ballast system on this third outing, the first one benefiting from a “big boys” weather. No time to rest, really – and no real reason to do so, since a certain individual who shall remain unnamed had (deliberately?) “forgotten” to take the crew’s lunch aboard.

Considerably lighter than when she entered the shed in February (and even lighter considering we didn’t have the crew’s lunch onboard!), BT has been stripped down to bare carbon before being optimised, repainted and fitted with new deck hardware. The schedule was tight, and the international team (French, English, New-Zealander) had to spend long hours indoors in order to ensure the boat would be:

a) Able to race straight out of the shed
b) Be in London by April 29th for her official launching ceremony
c) Ready to flex her muscles and give the competition a hard time in The Artemis Transat, starting from Plymouth on May 11.

“I’d say the boat is looking, feeling and performing great”, summed-up Seb, “and all the credit should go to the guys who didn’t spare their efforts. My turn to go out there and bring them back good results.” Keep smiling too, Seb!