In the beginning of April, 6e Sens will be back in her homeport of Lorient, where she was named in June 1999 after a 7-month build by Multiplast. She will be re-rigged straight away to go sailing again this summer. It will be the occasion to test her new bow section more thoroughly – it is finer for better passage through the waves and was grafted on last January in New Zealand – and to fine tune the options that should lead, in the short term, to a new French IACC.

Luc Gellusseau, technical manager, is satisfied on two accounts. First of all both team and boat improved drastically as the races unfolded: at the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup, in November 1999, “we were a long way from being able to rival with the semi-finalists. Since then, 6e Sens has become a competitive boat in all weather conditions and on all points of sailing, with a little “plus” downwind. But the other reason to be satisfied is the reliability.”

Serge Paillard, another leading personality of Le Défi, doesn’t hesitate to add: “Any minor technical problems we had were entirely our own fault. Multiplast’s build quality was absolutely exemplary.”