The central hull and the float have identical extremities, so that the direction is reversible: in this case the rudder at the back is raised and the one at the front is lowered, so that the prow becomes the stern. This manoeuvre is delicate and rare; usually the boat can turn or gybe like any windsurfer or yacht.
Let’s call it a "sail-proa". It still bears the name of its first sponsor "Challenge Nuclear Phase-out". The small group of Bretons who are demonstrating their proawess ,"Energy Challenge", is paving the ocean with excellent intentions.
This first Atlantic crossing is certainly a sporting, technical and financial exploit (with a handful of modest sponsors and a tiny budget, derisory when compared, for example, with the financial waste of "Défi AREVA"). This has been a beautiful human adventure: five people living in a confined space in spartan conditions, getting along for 9 weeks not just watching the ever-changing ocean but also stoically facing the wild elements (as during a force 8 storm in the Gulf of Biscay) and repairing the breakages - not a small feat. Judging by their on-board log, it was a moral success and a fine lesson in anarchy: "order minus power" as Léo Ferré used to say. Above all, it is an action to encourage as many people as possible to think about solutions to implement quickly so that we do not leave to our children a dying explosive Earth.
In the minds of its promoters, this crossing aimed to link up industrialists, voluntary groups, politicians and ordinary citizens to take part in building the world of tomorrow.
They left from the Gulf of Morbihan and passed the Pointe des Immigrés on Saturday 10 September.
For 2 months the 5 crew-members have lived almost completely in energy autonomy. No fuel on board except the gas which they consumed a little over 12kg of, not having the time -nor money- to find out how to turn raw into cooked, as Claude Lévi-Strauss used to say, by means of renewable energy sources. With their two solar panels, they power lights, including night lamps, run their computer, satellite phone, rechargeable radio batteries, GPS, torches, video camera, cameras, DVD player, electric kettle made (on board, on the Atlantic) with 2 old elements, and electric razor (for their chins)... All that is done with no external energy source except the sun.
And of course, the wind is what carried them thousands of miles (and even more kilometres).
They are sad to be hearing every day since they left Hierro (last stop in the Canaries before striking out across the mid-Atlantic) about the nuclear problem - Iran, North Korea - which has been the lead news story on Radio France.
Let’s say this straight out: in this world where everything is exploding, French suburbs, the top Amman hotels and of course Iraq, in this world where violence is concocted or anticipated in the political headquarters of parties, states or subversive organisations, where it is planned in military headquarters, financed in administration councils or stock exchanges, provoked in the harsh daily lives of millions and headlined in the newspapers, one would like the media to give more space to images that carry hope.
Such as the arrival in Martinique of this Transatlantic Proa.
Jean-Marie Matagne, president of Action of Citizens for the total Dismantling of Nukes (ACDN)
Article based on the website of the Transat Prao, in satellite contact with its initiator, Alain Guillard, and the ground crew of "Energy Challenge".