Cape Horn by foiling beach cat

Julbo to back Franck Cammas' quest and the search for a crew

Every year, Julbo offers one of his athletes the chance to realise a dream with a unique sporting feat. This year it is the turn of Franck Cammas.

He has won the Route du Rhum, the Volvo Ocean Race and the Little America's Cup. Franck Cammas is also head of the French challenge, Groupama Team France, for the 35th Americas Cup, which will be held on 49ft foiling catamarans in Bermuda in 2017. This talented sailor, nicknamed the 'little Mozart of sailing', spends more time on a boat than ashore.

When Julbo, which has been a supplier of Cammas' for over 17 years, proposed 'realising one of his dreams', the French skipper already had some thoughts: “I have three dreams, the first was realised; it was to win the Volvo Ocean Race. The second is to do the America's Cup, and we are actively working on that with my team. My third dream is to round the Horn on a flying catamaran.”

So the theme of this year’s Sail Session will be an expedition to Cape Horn in a Nacra F20 Carbon FCS.

Julbo and Franck Cammas have decided to recruit a teammate who will win a place on this challenge on the edge the world after a contest.

The challenge that will take place in November 2015 is not a trivial one. Candidates should therefore demonstrate a strong background in sport catamarans or dinghy sailing. Candidates are invited to post here https://www.julbo-eyewear.com/en/quizz/sail-session, before September, their sailing CV and a video presentation combining a face to camera interview and images of them sailing.

Franck Cammas and Julbo will select the most suitable people, who will then be invited to a training session in Lorient in September.

To round the Horn in a flying catamaran is easier said than done. The adventure will begin well before. The first challenge will be the logistics of transporting the Nacra F20 Carbon FCS to Puerto Williams in Chile. The weather will also be important in this challenge on the edge of the world. The land of fire is regularly swept by storms coming up from Antarctica and the Screaming Sixties.

From Puerto Williams, the expedition will head to Puerto Toro. This village of about 50 people is the southernmost city of the world (excluding research stations). It is located 3875 km from the South Pole. It is also the only village to be located below the 55th parallel.

The Nacra F20 Carbon FCS and its support boat will then sail to an anchorage near the Horn to prepare for the passage round the famous cape where the Pacific and Atlantic meet. Cammas and his new teammate will then sail a total of nearly 100 nautical miles by flying catamaran in the freezing waters of Patagonia.

Cammas and his crew will not be content to simply round the legendary rock. Once the sporting challenge is accomplished, the human adventure will take over on foot and they will land on Cape Horn and go and meet the lighthouse keeper and his family.

Supporting the adventure will be the 67ft sailboat Xplore. This will be the XPLORE sailboat, a 67ft aluminium boat, and its experienced skipper, Stephen Wilkins, who will look after the logistics and also the safety of the challenge in the channels of Patagonia.

"Cape Horn is the part we know," said Cammas of his new adventure. "What is fascinating is the land behind. Each time I passed it, I told myself that I had to come back to see this deserted and isolated land. It ‘s also a great story to finally go to meet this family that lives on the edge of the world. Each time we talked by radio with the lighthouse keeper at Cape Horn. When we did the Jules Verne we had this amazing conversation:

Where are you from?
From Brest, France
And where are you from?
Brest, France
Ah, you French are crazy! * (You are you crazy French)

As to the greatest difficulty Cammas says: "Management of the weather. We'll have to wait for the right moment because we don’t want to venture out into the unexpected in this part of the world. The Nacra F20 is fast, so we’ll move quickly. On the other hand it’s a thoroughbred, and, in a rough sea, you have to master it."