Arnaud Jarlegan: Walk the Walk

Arnaud Jarlegan is a man of few words, and although I also respect people that “walk the talk” , he is in fact, “walking the walk” with pure action. And these characters are always  the ones with a higher mark, like Loick Peyron. I would have prefer some more feedback on the trials, but he decidedto stay neutral, so I respect his position.
Arnaud is current F18 European Champ, 2010 World Champ,Wing trimmer for Energy, and he might be campaigning for 2016 also. Right now he is one of the most busy catsailors, below some Q&A with him.
When talking about being in the right spot at the rigth time, look no further than Arnaud. He is the one delivering the goods at every level of catamaran racing.
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Right now you are in a privileged position within the Multihull World.
– Are you a full time sailor right now ? 
Yes I am a full time sailor. I started to sail in catamaran 20 years old in Britany (Gulf of Morbihan). Step by step I arrived to the Tornado for an Olympic campaign. Now I am sailor for Energy Team and also waiting the next Olympic multihull.

Trials
– Did you campaign for the Olympics in the past ?
I did two Olympics campaigns in Tornado between 2000 and 2008 with Billy Besson. In 2008, we finished second in the trials. We were sparring partner for the french team. So I don’t know the Olympics games. In 2008, we were second in the European Tornado championship. It was a very good experience; We learned a lot of things, it is a good school.



– Did you particitape represeting the French Fed ?With whom did you sail?
Yes I went to Santander for the French federation. I sailed with Anne Claire LeBerre. She is a 470 and a match racing helm. Our position was very neutral. We have tested all the boat and we did a report for our federation.

– Did you sail all boats?
Yes we tried all the boat. The wind was between 4 and 20kts. Inside the bay it was flat water and outside he had waves.
In fact, I would like to stay neutral. But there is several boat which can be for the Olympics. Each boat has his qualities and a weight range for the team.

The constructors made a very good technical work. Now the federation will choose the boat. Like Roland told it, the boat is important but I think we must change the race ‘s format in the Olympics to become more spectacular and near the public.

– You ‘ll be campaigning for Rio?
I am waiting the ISAF decision to decide what  to do.

F18
– Are you sailing in LA 2012 Worlds?
Unfortunately  no, because I will sail in D35 at  Lehman lake.

– You’ve participating in the class for a while now, how is the class doing now? compared with the initial days? Huge global growth since then for ie.
I sailed in F18 for 15 years. If the class want to stay attractive I think the class must develop. I want to say: the boat should follow the technical innovation under measurer control.

ACup:
– Are you enjoying the AC45s rides?
I am very happy to sail on the AC45 with this wonderful team.

– It seems you catch up pretty fast with wings,
It is the work of all the team. The shore team did a very good job on the boat. Incidence produce our jibs and kytes, all wonderful sails. At Energy team we have a lot of multihull experience, our philosophy is to be professional, serious, respect of the other team.

How is trimming a hard Wing compared to your experience in the F18, Tornado and else with soft mainsails?
– Is that sensitive and a key control or the Wing is so efficient you can have more error margin than a soft sail?
To trim the wing, you have three ropes: the camber which can control the power, the twist is like a cunningham and the traveller. The wing trimmer works on the ratio between the power and the drag.
The diff between a soft sail and the wing is the power. You lost less energy with a wing. for the manouvers it is not easy but it is a very good challenge to sail with it.
To trim the wing, you must do very careful because you can capsize easily. After the initial  learning curve, a good trim on a wing is very small

Do you think Match racing skills are key, or a you guys showed, handling , trimming and speed can over come an experienced MR team withouth that much Multi hours?
We have worked our match racing skills with some good french match racer. We have a lot of things to learn in this way. We had a year very good matches last year and I think it will be very intersting. We like to do it.

Is Energy having any chance to get an AC72?
Yes Bruno and Loick Peyron and all the merkating team work very hard for this.

– Are you a permanent team member? You’llbe in naples and this 2012 season beyond ET being at the LV?
I hope!!

Future
My goals for the future is America’s cup. If the catamaran selected is good enough I am interested in the olympic campaign. I love multihulls.
—–Ends——
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