At 2pm on Thursday June 29, the IMOCA TeamWork was relaunched after a long winter refit. During these 6 months, the technical team in Lorient worked hard to improve and optimize the IMOCA, which was not originally designed for the Swiss sailor. The choice was made to carry out this long refit this year, in the absence of Justine Mettraux (at sea with 11th Hour Racing Team in The Ocean Race), so as to be able to test these evolutions before 2024 and the Vendée Globe.
Justine Mettraux on the winter refit:
"The big point of this winter refit was to change the foil wells. This was a big job that was started in March and has just been completed. We modified them to be able to accommodate new foils next year, which will enable us to gain in performance on all points of sail and on take-off. The current foils date back to 2018, when foils were first introduced, and there have been a number of developments since then, so this means we're up to date!
The second big job over the winter was energy. We tried to anticipate the Vendée Globe so as to have three reliable sources of energy, between the engine, the hydrogenerators and the solar panels that were installed. The solar panels, in addition to the hydrogenerators, should enable us to make slightly fewer engine loads than last year. We've also made a few adaptations to the deck fittings, in particular to the sheet passages, to make them a little easier.
With a view to the Vendée Globe, we still have a bit of work to do on onboard comfort, but that wasn't our priority over the winter. Here, we took advantage of the fact that I was on The Ocean Race to carry out the major work, and this will also enable us to have a reliable boat from the start of next year, as all these evolutions will have had time to be tested."
As for the rest of the program, Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion will soon be sailing again, and will set off on July 22 for their first race of the season, the Rolex Fastnet Race.
