With Whidden, Bieker and other greats in this edition, we must ration our use of ‘legend’… but the story of former fisherman Patrick Morvan’s evolution into destroyer of oceanic records is remarkable. After monohulls and a first crude cat, Morvan hit the headlines in 1984 (right) when with Jean Le Cam, Serge Madec and Guillemot on Jet Services II they chopped a day off the west-east transat mark. Sadly JS II sank a month later when Morvan struck a log while leading the Ostar. Next came the powerful but overweight and ill-fated Jet Services IV (top right) with that frighteningly big wingmast. Then (above) beauty replaces the beast, designer Gilles Ollier’s giant Tornado Jet Services V, a spindly but hugely fast racer that somehow would stay in one piece long enough to later break the 80-day Jules Verne mark as Bruno Peyron’s Commodore Explorer; this is the start of the two-handed La Baule-Dakar, in which co-skipper Daniel Gilard was sadly lost overboard. These boats were incredible to sail but they were also terribly dangerous


before taking a more pragmatic tack. ‘Sub- sequently the safety measures taken by the Orma class were hugely impactful and made a world of difference,’ he continues. ‘And if you look at the beating the


Ormas took in the 2002 Rhum, the fact that no one was hurt despite the conditions is a testament to the success of those mea- sures.’ It’s worth noting, incidentally, that Marc was one of the three Orma skippers who made it to Pointe-à-Pitre that year. Asked which technical innovation


impressed him the most within the Orma development story, he goes back to 1992 – when he was a member of Peyron’s Fuji team. ‘Loïck came up with that great idea of canting the mast, which was a bit tricky to implement but proved superbly efficient.’ Later on, the first C-shaped foils


designed by Marc Lombard really paved the way for another step-up in perfor- mance, while Marc goes on to stress that the parallel jump in autopilot performance also radically changed the way these boats were handled. He reminds us how Lionel Lemonchois’ latest intelligent pilot played a decisive role in his 2006 Rhum triumph aboard Gitana XI – the first unit to perform properly in true wind mode. Lionel sailed superbly and showed a


level of fearlessness that to this day remains part of offshore folklore, admitting that confidence in his pilot allowed him to have a nap sometimes while doing 30kt+. ‘From a pure hardware perspective,’


says Marc, ‘the level of build quality that we reached with those last Ormas made it possible to refine hull shapes to a very subtle degree. Appendages became thinner too, without breaking every time we shaved a bit off, as had been the case in the past… Sailplans moved aft, sailcloth performance shot up, etc etc. But in terms of quantum leaps, there’s no question in my mind that the canting rig is the major evolution which the Orma circuit gave us.’


60 SEAHORSE Having had the privilege of witnessing


Orma GPs up (very) close for a few seasons, yours truly can still feel the heady mix of exhilaration and apprehension experienced while sitting camera in hand in a RIB at the dog-leg mark, with Ormas screaming around the buoy as their gennakers unfurled: hardware evolution is one thing, but the level of control and mastery dis- played by the skippers was a thing of pure beauty. ‘We sailed cleanly,’ says Marc, ‘but very close too. Crossings were sometimes a little risky [ed – one may remember Joyon T-boning Groupama in Royan] – but, like today’s TP52 sailors, the Orma crews reached an uncanny level of slickness.’ SailGP and the various Cup-derived


events now form the pinnacle of that type of close-shave/high-speed fleet racing. ‘It’s a different world,’ notes Marc, ‘and that type of action has, largely, moved away from France. Ultims dominate the big multi scene now, while the “sensible”


During a ‘rest’ from employment following my first Admiral’s Cup in 1985 I spent some months motorbiking around the Med getting aboard anything I could learn from. I was fortunate to join Marc, Patrick Morvan and the rest of the team on Jet Services IV for training, testing and sponsor-frightening out of Toulon, plus a swift Med delivery or two; this was shortly before the ill-fated race to the US, or rather back from New York. Dominique Guillet, Serge Madec… A wonderful group to spend time at sea with. They teased me mercilessly about my ‘French’, but what a privilege. A couple of years later and I was racing against them (Patrick Morvan retired following the 1985 accident, to be replaced by the late Gerry Roufs); the four of them on the magnificent 75ft Jet Services V, me on the ‘flighty’ Orma Spirit of Apricot… and now teased about my ‘petit bateau’. Very special people and the essence of ocean racing. Ed


MOD70s that were a reaction to the highly strung Ormas have provided a period of transition, yet without any longterm continuity.’ Different classes have emerged, all with


their merits, but arguably the exclusive high- octane space occupied by the Orma remains unclaimed to this day. No machine out there today is versatile enough to provide hair- raising round-the-cans events as well as solo oceanic races at breakneck speed. Ocean50 tris, currently enjoying healthy


success, are to the Orma circuit what the Class40 is to the Imoca. Their inshore grand prix are hotly contested but have not replaced the 60s, even in terms of fleet size – not that that was ever the ambition, to be fair. And, crucially, class rules do not allow the 50s to give birth to the same volume of technical innovations that the 60s spawned. ‘True,’ says Marc, ‘but I’ve had enough Ocean 50s here at the yard to know that they are refined machines [ed – Marc owns space at Multipôle across the river from La Trinité, built during the ‘Multicoques’ golden era and which hosted many teams over the years]. Often almost as fast as the Ormas, thanks to their big foils! But the 50s are less sophisti- cated and honestly I find them less edgy.’ Performance, for sure – but no equiva-


lence when it comes to creativity. The Ormas were a breed apart and have not been replaced, but all the skills and talent they sharpened over the years have been put to good use in other development circuits, first and foremost in the modern Imoca class. ‘I look back at the past 40 years of


offshore racing and I am amazed as well as grateful to have been an integral part of it all. I’ve had the luxury of sailing with amazingly talented people, of having been young enough to say yes to crazy ideas. What we’ve seen, what we’ve done… I’d hate to have missed out on all that.’


q


CHRISTIAN FEVRIER


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