News Around the World
With two new TP52s coming out of Cookson this year and this tidy and slippery new Bakewell-White 37-footer from Yachting Developments, New Zealand is back in the raceboat building game after being absent for far too long. Anarchy is a ‘rule-free’ offshore-oriented design, but at 37ft she may well prove big enough (as a light-displacement racer) to be competitive under ORCi and possibly even IRC. Either way she looks darn fast…
Arriving in Barcelona, Stamm declared: ‘First there is this great satisfaction. We overcame many technical problems. But together we were able to find solutions. That is what is different about hav- ing two soloists on the same boat.’ Jean Le Cam put it even more simply: ‘Alone we would not have finished the race. Fortunately Bernard knows how to climb a mast… We went halfway around the world with a wind vane cobbled together on a little pole on the back of the boat, which we changed over depending what tack we were on. We finally got one to the top of the mast with an external cable...’
China turns red (again)
A page is turned for Francis Joyon with the sale of his legendary Ultime trimaran Idec. Now she will carry on crossing oceans with 50-year-old Chinese skipper Guo Chuan at the helm. Chuan raced the 2008 Volvo race and the 2011 Mini Transat. More recently he sailed alone around the world on the Akilaria Class40 Qingdao. He is the first Chinese sailor to do so.
Round the world, North Atlantic, Route of Discovery and 24-hour run… Francis Joyon and Idecheld all these solo records, two of which remain his own: rounding the world in 57d 13h and crossing the North Atlantic in 5d 2h 56m.
Launched in Lorient in June 2007, the long red trimaran built by Samuel Marsaudon and designed by Irens and Cabaret from the begin- ning proved to be simple, reliable and efficient. Francis himself will be 59 next month but does not intend to stay ashore for long. He is shortly expected to announce his new challenge… very probably on the ex-Banque Populaire– double winner of the Route du Rhum.
Full line-up
On 19 September 84 competitors will head across the Atlantic for the 20th edition of the Mini Transat. As in 2013, the race will start from Douarnenez in northwest Brittany and, with some 78 skippers already pre-registered, the 2015 edition is guaranteed to be intense. Among the entries we find some of the last edition’s frontrunners in the Proto class as well as good skippers moving up from the Series division… including Davy Beaudart with his Maximum, sistership to the famous ‘big nose’ Magnum, winner of the Mini Transat 2011 and second in the Mini Transat 2013.
In the Series fleet all eyes will be on the battle between the Nacira designs, dominant in 2013, the Lombard Argos designs and two newcomers, the Verdier-designed Pogo 3 and Etienne Bertrand’s Ofcet, raced by Ian Lipinski and Julien Pulve respectively.
16 SEAHORSE
Cammas still flying
‘Beyond the financial savings, the change from monohull to multihull has created new passion for the Tour de France à la Voile and this year we will have 30 trimarans on the startline, along with the best helmsmen and tacticians,’ comments Franck Cammas. While learning about their new Diam 24 tri, Franck’s crew are also busy this spring with an AC45 purchased from Russell Coutts by Michel Desjoyeaux’s company Mer Agitée and chartered for Franck by Groupama. But before going sailing the black carbon catamaran will spend two months in the shed at Lorient as the daggerboard cases are replaced by foil cassettes. ‘Our participation in the AC World Series is the result of many months of work with Team France. Fortunately Groupama supports me in this even if the America’s Cup is not among their objectives. It’s vital to show the French are competitive on this kind of boat in a format similar to the Cup, which is obviously our longterm ambition.’ Whereas the modified AC45s remain one-design and are thus incom- patible with innovation, thanks to their C-Class activity Franck’s team are still working away at flying faster, higher and further. The winners of the 2013 ‘Little Cup’, Franck and Louis Viat, will defend their title in Geneva in September. To maximise their chances the engi- neering and design department of Groupama have continued to develop their C-Class foils and the ergonomics of the trampoline. All useful knowledge should Franck get his team to Bermuda in 2017…
Bertrand de Broc is back (for a fourth time) Bertrand de Broc announced in March that he will be taking part in the 2016 Vendée Globe with sponsorship from Macsf, an insur- ance company for healthcare professionals. He will be at the helm of his faithful Imoca 60 – the same Groupe Finot design he sailed four years ago, built by Multiplast in 2008 and originally named Britair. Bertrand aims to make it around the world in 80-85 days. The first Vendée for the 55-year-old Breton sailor was in 1992 when he was forced to retire after keel damage. This was also the famous edition when Bertrand had to sew his own tongue back together… In 1996 there was the Votre Nom autour du Monde adventure, a 117-day round-the-world voyage aboard Philippe Poupon’s (very) old boat. Bertrand would fail, capsizing off Finisterre a day before arriving at les Sables d’Olonne. Then, in the last Vendée, in 2012, he relaunched Votre Nomand finally completed his first round-the- world voyage in ninth place. Bonne chance, Bertrand. Patrice Carpentier
IVOR WILKINS
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