Two races which will takes place one after the other over a period of 45 days without calling back to base in La Trinité sur Mer. A veritable challenge for the Gitana Team² shore crew and a first from a logistical point of view for the first 60-foot Open Multihull stable to run two boats side by side in the same field.

Stage 1 : Solo configuration for both trimarans and final check-ups.

Yann Marriley – "In terms of preparation, lots of things were validated before the Grand Prix in La Trinité sur Mer, France (30th April, 1st and 2nd May), and particularly during Marc and Fred's qualifying passages. After the Grand Prix, we put both boats into Transat configuration. This basically involved the six members of the shore team in disassembling the winch columns which are of no use solo, fitting the automatic pilots, mounting the Plexiglas bubbles to protect the helm stations, checking the hydraulics and computers and fitting the transatlantic sails on board. We've also unstepped the mast on Gitana 11, to change the hook plate which had been repaired provisionally just before the Grand Prix and have checked out the mast. Marc preferred not to have the boat out of action and to keep sailing her to fine tune his familiarity with Gitana X".

Stage 2 : Container full of technical gear leaves for Québec.

YM – "As the trimarans are not returning to base between the two races, the base has to come to them, so to speak. A container full to bursting is being sent to Québec with everything we need. 63 m3 of gear, so that we can reconfigure Gitana X and Gitana 11 for the crewed return and carry out any intervention which might be necessary. This might mean changing hardware, sails, sheets, halyards, electronic equipment etc…. For composite repairs, a complete workshop is in the container to cope with any eventuality. Nothing has been left to chance. If necessary, a truck can provide a shuttle service between Québec and Boston in the event of a technical emergency in the United States".