Beneteau Figaro 3 “Father and Son” Adventure Continues with Final Preparations for China Sea Race

As our Simpson Marine Beneteau “Father and Son” sailing team continues to prepare for the Rolex South China Sea Race, our Beneteau Sales Manager Cosmas Grelon shares with us how their preparations for racing on the Beneteau Figaro 3 all the way to the Philippines are going.

“The preparation for an offshore race is always very extensive, for good reason. The Rolex South China Sea race is a Category 1 offshore, therefore it requires boats to be fully self-sufficient in case of an emergency. When there are only two crew though, that makes things a lot more challenging and they must find ways to overcome some of the biggest threats that can arise whilst being offshore,” explains Cosmas.

“One example my father and I must be even more mindful of, compared to other fully crewed teams, is the risk of Man Overboard (MOB). The danger of this is if one crew falls overboard and the other crew does not notice, how can the MOB inform the other crew that they are MOB, help inform them of their location, and hopefully even be able to assist them from a distance to come to the rescue? We have come up with some creative ways to overcome these challenges as well as performing MOB drills in local waters during the day for practice but also at night-time to make the recovery procedure more realistic should it be needed,” continues Cosmas.

“As part of the preparation for the Rolex South China Sea race, we also had to achieve a 200NM offshore qualification that we successfully completed on the 3rd and 4th of March. The qualification went well, the boat performed beautifully, and we kept learning new ways to make the boat go faster. We were also able to test out all the sail configurations that we have heard about from the guys in Europe doing the Beneteau Figaro 3 circuit which is very exciting,” Cosmas adds.With two weeks to go before the grand race, the boat is almost fully ready and is going through its final preparations ready to cross the start line at full speed on 5 April 2023.   When the boat returns from the Philippines around mid-April, Simpson Marine will be hosting an open day to welcome anyone who is interested in viewing this fun racing boat and if you are lucky, you may be able to go for a sea trial too so please contact us at beneteau@simpsonmarine.com to enquire for a time slot to visit.

Stay tuned for more updates from the race departure to the Philippines!