Armel le Cléac’h arrives back in Les Sables in 2013 on Banque Populaire to finish second in the Vendée Globe after an epic match race around the world with fellow young tiger François Gabart on Macif. A new Verdier-VPLP designed Imoca 60 is already well advanced at builders CDK for Le Cléac’h and Banque Populaire’s next assault on the Vendée…
‘I’ll be back’
Jocelyn Blériot catches up with Armel le Cléac’h… about what might have been and about what is assuredly yet to come
With arguably the best adapted and most proven shorthanded ‘Ultime’ multihull, Armel Le Cléac’h could legitimately dream of a Route du Rhum triumph, which would have beautifully concluded his 2014 string of offshore solo successes. Yet if instead of a Caribbean cocktail he had to stick to Breton cider, the man himself still has plenty to look forward to – the next Vendée Globe being top of his list. We caught up with Armel just as he was taking delivery of the latest addition to the Banque Populaire fleet, a diminutive multi- hull that undoubtedly will provide an inter- esting visual counterpoint to her big sister in Lorient, where the team is based. ‘We’ve just received our new Diam24 trimaran, she was being hoisted onto the trailer as the phone rang,’ explained the skipper. ‘We’ll be doing Spi-Ouest France on her
plus a couple of other events, but not the Tour Voile [of which the Diam24 is the new official one-design], as we’re launch- ing our new Imoca 60 in March and will be busy putting her through her paces this summer,’ added Armel before admitting in his usual straight-talking manner that ‘It’s good to have such a big milestone to look forward to, it certainly helps me get over the disappointment of the Rhum affair… that has been a tough one.’
If most of us will mainly recall Mr Peyron’s outstanding performance and the great teamwork that made it possible, from Armel’s point of view things are obviously slightly different and leave an aftertaste of a job half-done – not to mention the sheer frustration which is in direct proportion to the man’s immense competitive spirit. ‘It was a stupid domes- tic accident. I cut myself quite badly, damaging a tendon and a nerve. It required surgery, and straight after the operation the surgeons told me that basically I’d have to get used to the idea that I would not be on the Rhum startline.
‘It happened in August, and even now in early December my hand is not yet back to 100 per cent capacity. By the time we
launch the new monohull things will have considerably improved, and I should be back completely… but I have to say it came as a huge shock. The team had been preparing for the Rhum for over a year and a half, starting straight after the Vendée Globe, and I’d spent a lot of time accumulating miles on the boat.’ News that Banque Populaire had acquired the VPLP-designed Groupama 3 (Jules Verne Trophy holder and winner of the 2010 Rhum with Franck Cammas) had indeed appeared on our screens as Armel was still at sea in the Vendée, hot on the heels of François Gabart. Right after secur- ing his second runner-up spot in the Vendée he jumped straight into this new adventure. ‘For two years I’ve sailed and sailed that boat, completing four transats and securing three records in the process’ (the Med crossing, the Discovery Route and the singlehanded 24-hour run with 682 miles covered…).
In fact, it was an interesting phenome- non to be falling back in love with solo multihull sailing, for a man who had decided to throw in the towel after a violent capsize in the two-handed 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre, in the course of which Armel’s co-skipper Damian Foxall was seriously injured. Granted, Orma 60s were different beasts, and Peyron himself had (even before Armel) declared that the whole thing was getting a bit silly. Same men, but different times and
SEAHORSE 27
VINCENT CURUTCHET/DPPI
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