When we started to write the newsletter for the Royal Langkawi
International Regatta (March 11 to 16, 2003), we didn't know that, thanks
to our badge "Press" we would have the chance to chat a while with
Bruno Peyron.
Because he had a busy schedule, we had to wait for 3 days before we interviewed him for a quarter of an hour, right after a photo shoot with the women and youth teams.
He is still the record holder of the circumnavigation (the Jules Verne Trophy in 64 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes et 24 seconds) with his maxi catamaran "Orange. He will organize "The Race" next year, leaving from Marseille on February 26, 2004 but he was in Malaysia to promote the organization of yet another race, "The Race Tour" which will take place in 2006.
It will be a circumnavigation wih crew and there will be Pit Stops in Europe, the USA, Asia and the South Pacific.
The first thing he told us about "The Race Tour" is that it will hopefully be a human adventure. The idea behind "The Race Tour" is to make it a universal event, linking tolerance and dialogue between different cultures.
By "bringing" world races to Asia, Bruno Peyron wants to promote the universality of the races in general
He has been working on this project for the past 7 years and he also would like to extend the interest in world sailing races to the general public.
Thanks to cameras being mounted on each boat with fast transmission systems and antennas, the general public will be able to follow "The Race Tour" in real time.
His presence in Malaysia is also the best way for him to advise the race committee of the Pit Stop here to avoid the mistakes they did in Europe or the USA. He said: "they will both gain time and spend less money by learning from our experience"
Bruno Peyron also underlined the fact that the Malaysians were very enthousiastic about the project and eager to learn.
While talking to him, we realized that he has a great passion for the sea but also an enormous passion for people.
When we walked down the pontoon with him, he was looking at the youth team just walking in front of us and commented "This is what is important to me. These youngsters are participating to their first race and they will be the skippers of the boats during major races in 10 years time)
He added that the sponsors are also very important and that's why he is also meeting with the executives of major corporations here in Malaysia. They will be the ones who will help financing the race.
He then made a very interesting comment: "Did you ever notice that sailing boat racing doesn't have any negative connotation. No discussion about doping or financial scandals. Moreover, it's a sport that does appeal to companies since it's still "cheap" compared to Formula 1 or football, for example".
We agree with him and wish him luck in getting "The Race Tour" on track.
Well, as far as we are concerned, our job of issuing a 4-page newsletter each day in english (5 in total) for the regatta was quite a challenge. We had to make sure the logos of the 36 sponsors were in good place, write about the races, the race committee and team of volunteers (like us) on start and marker boats, we also wrote the race sponsors profiles, etc, etc.
To make it simple, we used nicknames: Gigi and Ben since our Belgian names are quite difficult to memorize for english-speakers.
During our long days in the press room in front of our Mac Powerbook G3, we also met a lot of Malaysian journalists. For most of them, it was the first regatta they ever "covered" and they thanked us for making them discover sailing through our newsletter "The Langkawi Eagle" and discussions.
It was really worth all these efforts and we are very pleased to be greeted as "Ben & Gigi" as we walked around at the end of the regatta!
Because he had a busy schedule, we had to wait for 3 days before we interviewed him for a quarter of an hour, right after a photo shoot with the women and youth teams.
He is still the record holder of the circumnavigation (the Jules Verne Trophy in 64 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes et 24 seconds) with his maxi catamaran "Orange. He will organize "The Race" next year, leaving from Marseille on February 26, 2004 but he was in Malaysia to promote the organization of yet another race, "The Race Tour" which will take place in 2006.
It will be a circumnavigation wih crew and there will be Pit Stops in Europe, the USA, Asia and the South Pacific.
The first thing he told us about "The Race Tour" is that it will hopefully be a human adventure. The idea behind "The Race Tour" is to make it a universal event, linking tolerance and dialogue between different cultures.
By "bringing" world races to Asia, Bruno Peyron wants to promote the universality of the races in general
He has been working on this project for the past 7 years and he also would like to extend the interest in world sailing races to the general public.
Thanks to cameras being mounted on each boat with fast transmission systems and antennas, the general public will be able to follow "The Race Tour" in real time.
His presence in Malaysia is also the best way for him to advise the race committee of the Pit Stop here to avoid the mistakes they did in Europe or the USA. He said: "they will both gain time and spend less money by learning from our experience"
Bruno Peyron also underlined the fact that the Malaysians were very enthousiastic about the project and eager to learn.
While talking to him, we realized that he has a great passion for the sea but also an enormous passion for people.
When we walked down the pontoon with him, he was looking at the youth team just walking in front of us and commented "This is what is important to me. These youngsters are participating to their first race and they will be the skippers of the boats during major races in 10 years time)
He added that the sponsors are also very important and that's why he is also meeting with the executives of major corporations here in Malaysia. They will be the ones who will help financing the race.
He then made a very interesting comment: "Did you ever notice that sailing boat racing doesn't have any negative connotation. No discussion about doping or financial scandals. Moreover, it's a sport that does appeal to companies since it's still "cheap" compared to Formula 1 or football, for example".
We agree with him and wish him luck in getting "The Race Tour" on track.
Well, as far as we are concerned, our job of issuing a 4-page newsletter each day in english (5 in total) for the regatta was quite a challenge. We had to make sure the logos of the 36 sponsors were in good place, write about the races, the race committee and team of volunteers (like us) on start and marker boats, we also wrote the race sponsors profiles, etc, etc.
To make it simple, we used nicknames: Gigi and Ben since our Belgian names are quite difficult to memorize for english-speakers.
During our long days in the press room in front of our Mac Powerbook G3, we also met a lot of Malaysian journalists. For most of them, it was the first regatta they ever "covered" and they thanked us for making them discover sailing through our newsletter "The Langkawi Eagle" and discussions.
It was really worth all these efforts and we are very pleased to be greeted as "Ben & Gigi" as we walked around at the end of the regatta!
