French Nats: Billy Besson & the Askell

This article was made entirely by Tibo Laudren at the 2014 French Nats.
Besson raced the French designed & built Askell, a project by Dorian Le Pluart. What a nice project the Askell has become, I like how they went full forward beyond any contextual aspect and achieved an excellent 2nd place at La Baule , and looking ahead to the Europeans. The Askell has arrived.

Many thanks to Billy, Tibo and Dorian Le Pluart for this insight and the excellent pics by Stephanie Billarant
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Q&A with Billy Besson by Thibault Laudren.

- Tibo Laudren: Was this your first time racing A Class?
Billy Besson: No, I had the chance to sail the Worlds at Islamorada in 2012 with my good friend Jérémie Lagarrigue. Actually, I wouldn't really say sail, as for me and my 68kgs, it was more of a survival mode as the wind was really strong all week long. I could only train a day or two before and was actually quite pleased with my final score at that time, ending in the top 20.
Since, then, I have always kept an eye on the class and now that I'm sailing Nacra 17 and training for the Olympics towards Rio, the A Cat appears like a very complementary platform with both boats having a few interested features in common like the curved daggerboard and carbon wing masts.

On top of that, after working with the Hydros Class C project, I was naturally interested to keep on sailing foiling cats. Since A Class have reach this level too by now, coming back to it and putting to test the new Askell with J-Boards during the French nationals felt like a great opportunity.

- Will you keep sailing A Cats in the future?
BB: I have a very busy agenda with the Nacra 17, with intensive training and regular competitions, but if I ever have the chance to join the Class again, I'll be very happy to do it. We're under discussions with the Le Pluart brothers from Askell regarding the Europeans at the end of the month, so who knows...

- What do you think of the A cat in general and the class atmosphere?
BB: The boat is great to sail, very responsive and fast, even in lights winds. It is certainly for me a good experience to sail single-handed too as I'm not used to it. To be honest, I have been very pleased by the atmosphere here at La Baule for this Nationals. People are super friendly, chatting and laughing with each and every one, no matter how old you are and how good you are, they are here to have fun, share a good time all together but still, are serious about racing with some of the guys sailing very well. I'm certainly having a good time here.

- You are sailing the latest version of the Askell. Could you tell us more about the boat and what you think about it?
Today was my 8th day racing an A cat and my 4th day on the Askell. and considering it was rigged and launched only the day before the event, it feels great.

The boat is extremely stiff, you can feel it while sailing, every little change of trim, body position or helm has a direct impact on the boat's behaviour and speed When foiling, this gives you a more accurate control of the boat which is to me key for efficient flying.

Even though we still have a few settings and handling features to adjust to get the maximum out of it, the J-Boards have been performing very well. Even in this light wind racing compared to straight or curved boards boats. I really like the tapered mast too because the softer top section gives you a better control of the sail and a more all around solution . All in all, I have been pretty lucky to sail on this boat. The Le Pluart brothers have done an amazing job getting the boat ready in time and I like the fact this is a family business. It gives some spirit to their work !

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Askell builder Dorian Le Pluart on the new boat:
"The boat Billy was sailing at the French Nationals is the 4th Askell a cat platform we have built at our boatyard in Brittany. It has the same hulls than the previous Askells.
Only the layering process has changed to deliver a platform even stiffer than before, with great focus on the beams. The daggerboards cases have changed in shape and longitudinal position so it can be fitted with the new J-Boards. Boards that we have designed, processed and manufactured ourselves.

They are rather longer than all other boards on the market so far, with an asymmetrical tip on the end to increase the lift for foiling. So far, we were happily surprised of the behaviour of the boat in light winds with the extra length of the boards providing good support while going upwind and no excessive drag. The boat ended 2nd in a championship with winds never exceeding 12 knots and after touching water only the day before the start, with no precise idea of the ideal setting at the time. We are now impatient to try the boat in stronger winds for which we believe to have a great potential.

Also, we have used our "one shot process" for building our J boards, just like the Cs we are regularly doing. This, to my view, only has advantages, even though it makes it more difficult and longer to build, and therefore slightly more expensive. But once it's done, the board is stiffer, with far less risks of breakages since there is not joint (the board is one whole piece) and a better control of the overall shape of the board. The result is that you can push the boat harder and longer, even in Strong winds.

For the rest, the boat was fitted with our current tapered mast model. The same one used by François Gabart and 6 other sailors at the event. The sail was an Askell made too.

Work wise, we have been very busy building the boat in time for the Nationals. In the meantime, we have received orders of some more masts for different customers to be delivered in the coming weeks and a few set of sails too. If no change of plan, we should be coming to the Europeans in Bordeaux and are currently under discussions with a few sailors to helm the boat."

Tibo: Once the racing was over and the wind peaked up a bit, we had the chance to meet up on the water with Stephanie Billarant (Energy Team official photographer) for 2 shooting sessions showing what sort of flying the boat can achieve. I attached a few of these pictures to this email for publishing . And the whole set of pictures can be found on her gallery at the following address:
http://stephaniebillarant.dphoto.com/album/9f4c8g

I have also publish a few set of pictures of the boat on land on our facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/askell.acat