Pontoon words: Miranda Merron (Britain) and Halvard Mabire (France) speak on arrival

Miranda Merron
There’s a party? We didn’t know, let’s go! It's great to be here. 

Halvard Mabire
It was really good! Very very good, it’s one of my most enjoyable transats. 

Miranda 
It’s true, we had no pressure at the start so we had a lot of fun. I learned a lot! There’s still the return journey to do and after I will be on my own. Halvard will miss me!

Halvard
I trained her, I did nothing, I was aft, just saying a little further to the left or right, and from time to time I turned winches. I took the opportunity to write a little. We’re happy. This is one of the most beautiful transats I’ve done. The conditions were nice. Leaving without pressure, I saw another side of offshore racing. It took me more than 40 years, and finally, it’s not that bad! I used to ask myself the question: “why do some people leave without any ambition of a top result?” I have the answer now: it's a huge pleasure. I have to check with René [Boulaire, in charge of the rankings and time of arrival, ed], because we tried to cover as few miles as possible.

Miranda
Campagne de France, is a good solid boat, there are some improvements to be made, downwind sails, some rigging. Everything is much heavier on an IMOCA and you really have to think and plan ahead because you pay for mistakes.  In a Class40 if you make a mistake you can usually make up for it. 

I feel that I have learned a lot and will learn more about the boat before going around the world; it's a well-built boat, I had fun, even though I like to have some more boats behind me. I've never had so much fun on a transat.