04 September 2014, Marseille, France – Seb Col is back
on the GC32 circuit on the occasion of the Marseille One Design’s first
edition, where he will sail on GDF SUEZ along with skipper Sebastien Rogues,
after Seb Col broke GC32’s speed record reaching 37,9 knots in Lake Garda last
July.
Seb
Col’s foiling season continues in September, after having taken part to several
events in GC32 and competing at the highest level in Moth earlier this summer.
After
a short break following the Moth World Championships where he finished 28th
overall and first French, Seb Col went back to top monohull racing on Magic
Carpet 3 in Porto Cervo for the Maxi Worlds. But just before that, he spent a
few days in La Baule to train as part of Sebastien Rogues’ crew on GC32 GDF
SUEZ, in order to prepare for the Marseille One Design event with a crew
formed of multihull specialists, which will take place next week from September
8-14.
Sebastien
is really happy to go back racing in Marseille, since he’s a member of Yachting
Club de la Pointe Rouge, one of Marseille’s most famous yacht clubs. Seb is
also training on the Moth at the “Pole Voile Marseille”, thanks to the support
of the French Sailing Federation.
Seb
Col explains: “Sebastien Rogues offered me to join his team for the first GC32
event he’s taking part to, and which is a great opportunity for him to develop
and to improve his multihull skills. The GC32 is a very attractive boat, which
has met a lot of success since it was launched. So Seb Rogues gathered a team
of foiling boats’ experts around him, including Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin
Amiot, who are Flying Phantom’s specialists. Bertrand Castelnerac, who sails
regularly with Seb Rogues, will be the 5th team member. So all in all a very good crew
with lots of capabilities, but with no experience of competition on a GC32 yet.
My
role since we started to prepare this event was to share a maximum of my
experience with them, and to guide them in terms of tuning the boat and for the
manoeuvers. And during the competition, I will be the mainsail trimmer and
calling tactics, which is important and interesting for me since it is on that
kind of job that I project myself in the future on bigger events, including the
America’s Cup.
I
spent a lot of time at helm during the two America’s Cup campaigns I took part
to, but I have been in a tactician role most of the time and on many regattas
those past years, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. So it’s not
really a new challenge, but adapting all this experience to foiling multihulls
is really interesting. I’ve already called tactics on big multihulls with good
results with Sebastien Josse and Michel Desjoyeaux on their respective MOD70,
and I really liked it. So going to foiling multihulls is again another
dimension. I sail on Moths and I’ve already helmed a GC32, and it is really
important for a tactician to know how the boats work, in order to be on the
same page with the helmsman, especially for the one who makes the tactical
decisions. And I would really like to move forward in that direction since my
match racer’s past experience allows me to sail under a lot of pressure from my
competitors, to achieve a good decision making process in the most intense and
highly heart beating moments and to be able to react in front of the opponent,
and that’s what I enjoy the most.”
Seb
Col will also take the opportunity to train on his Moth while he will be in
Marseille, even if he will not be able to take part to both competitions on the
Moth and GC32 at the same time:
“I’m
really happy to sail again on the GC32 since it’s a very good boat with a crew
with no equivalent for now, and it’s been well developed. It’s new and really
interesting” says Seb.
“I
will also sail a bit on the Moth this week in order to train a few hours every
day, since it is important for me to continue to develop my experience with
always more sailing hours in order to prepare myself for the next Moth World
Championships, which will already take place in January 2015 in Sorrento,
Australia.”
With
Gurit supporting him since the beginning of his foiling season, Seb Col is
proud to be part of the Gurit family since he became one of their ambassadors.
Seb continues to benefit from Gurit’s 30 years’ experience working alongside
the world’s leading designers and boat builders, combining a unique technical
approach, integrating structural design, materials science and advanced process
engineering, enabling Gurit to offer the most comprehensive composite solution
in the marketplace. Indeed, the well-known composite materials specialist has a
dedicated marine projects department that now supplies the full spectrum of
marine projects worldwide.
GC32
training will start this week-end for GDF SUEZ team, and racing will take place
from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 September from 11:00 to 17:00, with a minimum of
6 races scheduled per day and lasting 20 to 25 minutes in Marseille’s Southern
harbor area, also known as one of the best race zones in France, with the
Corniche waterfront offering a stunning natural view point for spectators.
More about the event: www.marseille-onedesign.com
More about the GDF SUEZ team and Sebastien Rogues: www.sebastienrogues.com
