Calm and collected

Orange trimaran skipper Stève Ravussin highly chilled before Route du Rhum start

Behind one Ravussin you can always find another. Yvan, brother of Steve, is well known as the indestructible brother in arms from many ocean races, but this time it was father François, that Stève chose to accompany him on Wednesday for the delivery of his Orange trimaran to Saint Malo.

Orange, the former Banque Populaire, the Marc Lombard design from 2001 that came third in the last Route du Rhum in the hands of Lalou Roucayrol, made her way without any problems to the competitors’ dock in St Malo, where she will quietly await the starting gun next Sunday. By then, Stève will have spent a few days back in his native Switzerland in the bosom of his family, where the Ravussins, both father and sons, go to relax and build up their strength before each major sporting event.

Orange will be left in the hands of Pierre-Yves Moreau, Etienne David, Yannick Allain and Roberts Nyberg, until her skipper returns next Wednesday. Stève, freeing himself from any technical demands pre-start, has drawn up his schedule as he wishes. The family comes first, then there will be meetings with the press, "because that is our job and it’s thanks to them that we can live our passion," says Stève. "We’re ready, so we have the time and the inclination to communicate: the more we talk, the better we feel!"

Meanwhile somewhere near Stockholm, the neurones of another core member of the Orange team are methodically cranking into action. Navigator and router Roger Nilsson, former Whitbread skipper and more recently Bruno Peyron’s companion during his campaigns, has been analysing the weather in the Atlantic. "Roger and I get on well together," says Ravussin. "Roger calls me regularly, but only when he knows it’s the right moment, when he is certain that his information is reliable and sure."

With just a few days to go before the Route du Rhum, Ravussin will sleep like a log. Studies on sleep carried out three years ago at the Hôtel Dieu hospital in Paris have set him up with just the knowledge he requires to learn how to cope with sleep in a race. "There’s nothing miraculous about it," he stresses. "It comes from experience that you learn about yourself and can identify your personal requirements… The day I get worried before a race is the day when I find out I am too old for this job."