FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jake Fish
US SAILING Communications Manager
jakefish@ussailing.org
(401) 683-0800
On Saturday, March 20 in Ushant, France, Stan Honey added yet another milestone to his long list of offshore sailing achievements. The US SAILING Board of Directors member was the senior member and lone American aboard Franck Cammas’ Groupama 3 during their pursuit of The Jules Verne Trophy. The navigator played a huge role in Groupama 3’s record breaking sail around the globe. Groupama 3 broke the previous record set by Bruno Peyron’s Orange 2 in 2005 by two days, eight hours and 35 minutes. Groupama 3 spent over 48 days at sea, and they experienced a number of highs and lows. Thanks to a blazing sprint from the equator, they recovered from a 500 mile deficit to set a new record.
Stan is not only an offshore sailing expert. He is a mogul in the world of sports media technology. Stan co-founded Sportvision Inc., the leading developer of enhancements for sports television broadcasts. Honey led the development of the yellow first down line on televised football, the NASCAR racecar tracking and highlighting system, and the baseball K-Zone system which highlights the pitch location and strike zone. Stan holds eight patents in navigational system design, and is a member of the board of directors of KVH, a manufacturer of satellite communications and navigation systems.
US SAILING had an opportunity to talk with Stan following his record breaking journey around the world...
Why was participating in this race so important to you? Would you do it again?
I’d do it again in an instant. The French are at the pinnacle of offshore multihull sailing, and Franck Cammas and Groupama are the leading French team. It was an honor as an American to be asked to navigate for a French team and particularly for Cammas-Groupama.
How did you prepare physically and mentally for this race?
Physically, I prepared just like I did for the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR). In fact, I did the exact workouts that we used prior to the 2005-2006 VOR on ABN AMRO. The race was not as tough as a VOR, however. My primary job on deck was grinding, just like in the VOR, but the other tough part of a VOR is the stacking at every tack and gybe. On Groupama there wasn’t nearly as much stacking. We would occasionally drag sails around, and several times we restacked the boat before and after, but we didn’t have the backbreaking athwart-ship stacking that you have in a Volvo with every tack and gybe.
I spent over a week in Toulouse France, at Meteo-France, the French national weather service, working with Sylvain Mondon, who continued to work with me throughout our trip. Unlike racing under the RRS, WSSRC record passages allow communications with meteorologists that are off the boat. Sylvain and I went over all of the previous multihull circumnavigations as well as a number of Open 60 circumnavigations. By the time we started, Franck, Sylvain, and I largely agreed on the principle objectives of our routing. This preparation was crucial during the actual event.
How did you hold up physically?
I lost 10-15 pounds on the Jules Verne, as opposed to 30 pounds in the Volvo. The difference was probably due to the better food on Groupama, as well as the fact that the crew is much better protected so you are not wet all of the time on Groupama.
What was the most important experience you took away from this race?
Sailing an offshore multihull of this generation is like playing cards with a hand in which you have only a couple of strong cards, but those few cards are extremely strong. These boats are extremely fast in the right conditions, moderate winds with flat water, and these boats have to avoid rough sea-states or slow down substantially if you can’t avoid them. On the other hand, you have the speed to allow you to pick your weather and sail around weather that you need to avoid. There are, however, certain corners of the race course, such as the Horn, where your only option is to slow down if you have to avoid bad weather. You have to round the Horn.
Did this experience reinforce the importance of implementing best safety practices?
As with any skilled professional crew, the crew of Groupama 3 took safety seriously. While the boat was not required to pass the Offshore Special Regulations, Groupama 3 was equipped to largely meet those requirements because they make good sense. When we first started sailing together as a crew, we did several man-overboard drills, worked out the procedures that worked best for us, and posted a laminated summary of those procedures in the casquette (hard dodger). Each crewman had a Spinlock Deckvest and a bum bag with emergency gear that each crewman looked after for himself during the trip.
How can technology improve our sport for spectators?
Jacques Caraës did a terrific job of taking video and uploading it during our trip. I didn’t have extensive experience with the www.Cammas-Groupama.com/en website, but I hear that most folks thought that it was terrific and had particularly good tracking on a map display. The video and still pictures that I’ve seen from Jacques’ work was terrific. The entire crew shared the responsibility of writing and sending updates to the website.
Having been involved in the early development of the yellow first down line used in American Football, the racecar tracking used in NASCAR, and the baseball pitch tracking and strike-zone highlighting used in baseball, I’m confident that similar enhancements can be made to make televised inshore sailing easier to understand by highlighting the tracks, even-lines, laylines, etc. on the actual live helicopter video of inshore racing such as Cup races.
About US SAILING
The United States Sailing Association (US SAILING), the national governing body for sailing, provides leadership for the sport in the United States. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US SAILING is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. US SAILING offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including National Championships and the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org.
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