Tepee a mix of old Formula 40 parts

For all you guys out there reading our blog but not in touch with what is going on in the top end of the sailing game ,a certain French sailor has just recorded a record nonstop sail around the world. Francis Joyon is a very dear friend of mine and one of the most awesome sailors I have ever met .This man is old school , he is so involved with what he does that he knows every inch of his boats and how to fix them .When all the other racers have a dock and crew getting the boat ready for a race , Francis is out on a mooring doing everything himself .He is a gentle giant , softly spoken and very accommodating ,but has this look in his eyes that say something ,what I have not been able to figure out .For fun Francis would climb aboard his catamaran Tepee and sail to the Caribbean from France . He built the boat from bits he picked up in boatyards left over from the old Formula 40 class .
He also won the prestigious transatlantic Ostar on a boat that was also bits from different boats .When he gave up his sponsorship with Banque Populaire to follow his longing to ocean race ,the sponsorship went to Lalou Roucayrol who managed to get the sponsors to build a new boat and sell the old one to Francis .Francis got the boat minus the rig and sails ,but managed to get a mast and some sails from Florence Artaud's old boat and put the whole lot together to go out and win the Ostar when a lot of the other boats where going upside down or breaking apart .
Francis then managed to get the old Sport Elec trimaran and went about doing some mods to be able to sail the monster single handed .He accomplished the mods and with a little known sponsor went off around the world to break the non stop single handed record, but fate had him pegged and after achieving the impossible ,by sailing a boat designed for crew non stop he decided to slow down his progress back to his home port to be able to arrive in daylight .Fate collected as Francis woke hearing a loud bang and found himself pinned between rocks .
The boat was a total loss in a matter of hours and this after the amazing high of setting a record time around the world .To top this , Ellen MacArthur went and broke the record soon after .
Just when everybody thought it was all over , Francis's sponsor stepped up and a new purpose built boat was on the way .The new boat was from another planet , slick,lean and with one purpose ,to break records .
Francis was off again , a well deserved break for a man who never asked for anything .Everything came together ,from the designers,to the builders , to the weather router, to the sponsors ,to the sailor and to the weather and the sailing gods where smiling as well .Francis completed another record breaker to the congratulations of the whole sailing community and probably everybody in France .
Well done Francis , this was a long time coming and never more well deserved .And thank you to Idec and ICM for believing in this awesome person.