The scientists gathered at LOCEAN to listen to Yvan Griboval, sailor, former journalist and self-taught entrepreneur without any scientific knowledge, including Laurence Eymard (Director of LOCEAN in 2006), Gilles Reverdin, Fabienne Gaillard, Nicolas Metzl and a few others, are seduced by the idea. But they declared it impossible to achieve because of the existing equipment unsuitable for being embarked on a small oceanic racing sailboat of 15-20 meters, whether it was sailed with a crew or, a fortiori, solo! However, to tell Yvan Griboval that something is impossible is to launch your imagination towards new innovations. Thus begins the adventure of the OceanoScientific Programme, which has continued to develop ever since.  

 

The specific features of the OSC System are the automatic collection every six seconds of scientific quality data of a dozen parameters at the Air - Sea interface where the Climate is played out. Every hour, from H-10 to H-00, a median of the data is produced automatically by the OSC-Software, then automatically transmitted by Iridium to Météo-France, which controls the quality before broadcasting it on the Global Telecommunication System. (GTS). These unprecedented data are then accessible free of charge to all scientific institutes, in particular to feed weather forecasts. Data collected every six seconds is stored on the hard drive of the OSC System. They are accessible by the scientists in charge of their study from their own computer, without having to leave their laboratory.

 

Yvan Griboval opened this very innovative path fifteen years ago with the aim of helping scientists "Better know the Ocean to better preserve it ". This is the original concept imagined, then shared with the Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose great-great-grandfather, Prince Albert I, was the first to use a yacht to conduct oceanographic campaigns, as early as 1885. Prince Albert I, moreover, remains Yvan Griboval's "Spiritual Guide".

 

However, little by little, realizing the relevance of the idea and the success of the implementation, some sailors in turn embarked on this path. Liz Wardley, Alexia Barrier and Boris Hermann first, convinced of the usefulness of the approach in all areas, especially for the sponsoring partners of their teams. Fabrice Amedeo followed. And now Éric Defert, who usefully revives the large monohull designed by Gilles Vaton for the circumnavigations of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, then Maud Fontenoy. Still others will join them and that's good.

 

Indeed, today, a good number of offshore racers can collaborate in oceanographic programs thanks to the material marketed by Stefan Marx (SubCtech) who has produced a product derived from the OSC System that he markets to oceanic racers and former racers at affordable financial terms.

 

"As Fabienne Gaillard (Ifremer) said", reports Yvan Griboval, "scientists need private participatory science initiatives to enrich international databases with in situ information collected in little or no explored maritime areas. that is to say almost the entire expanse of the Ocean with the exception of commercial maritime routes".

 

Fabienne Gaillard was the "Mum" of the OceanoScientific Programme. She guided Yvan Griboval in the development of the OSC System and its application, before leaving us on March 25, 2017, just the day before passing Cape Horn during the very first oceanographic campaign carried out under sail without discharge of CO2 under the 40th South, solo, by Yvan Griboval (OceanoScientific Expedition 2016-2017).

 

Constantly innovating and now based in Monaco and the harbor of Toulon, Yvan Griboval continues to develop the OceanoScientific Programme by enriching it with new parameters within the framework of the OceanoScientific Expeditions 2021 - 2026 , without abandoning the collection of data from quality at the Air - Sea interface, with ever more efficient equipment.