Left: Alex Loison… ‘Absolutely this is the best!! Winning the Fastnet again was nice, racing two-handed with Jean-Pierre (Kelbert). But the Solitaire du Figaro I am trying to win for 20 years. Three tough legs racing one-designs against great sailors – especially the young tigers all desperate to get to the Vendée Globe! You really cannot try the VG seriously without first scoring well in the Figaro.’ Above: one serious Vendée challenger who has certainly done his time is English skipper Sam Goodchild, demonstrating during the Défi Azimut exactly what he meant in the last issue about Charlie Dalin’s Imoca Macif liking to dip her nose when pressed downwind
The 2025 Solitaire was particularly demanding: capricious winds,
two delayed starts, accumulated fatigue among the skippers and a long final stage of heavy upwind sailing. The figures speak for themselves: 612 theoretical miles compared with 698 actually covered by Charlotte Yven on this last leg. For such a long leg multiple tacking manoeuvres were required, along with repeated trim adjustments in changing conditions. ‘This last leg was long,’ Charlotte said on her arrival. ‘We had
to go fast all the time, be on top of it, there was no easy option. The fatigue was there the whole time. We were really tossed about on the north coast of Spain and later up in the Raz Blanchard the huge swell was a constant challenge.’ Third into Roscoff, 3rd in Vigo, then 5th on the final leg, Yven shone
with her speed and consistency. Already victorious in two Paprec two-handed transatlantic races in the Figaro 3, 5th in the Solitaire in 2024 and promoted to French solo racing champion, she is estab- lishing herself as one of the leading figures of her generation. During these years of competition, punctuated by the Solitaire
every year, as well as forays into Class40, Alexis Loison has raced mainly on IRC yachts and accumulated an exceptional track record in the big international events. Three people have contributed greatly to the development of his career. First Jean-Pierre Kelbert who, from the first races on his father’s Night and Day, understood that the young Norman had what it takes; he quickly enlisted him to accom- pany him in ‘four-handed’ competition and to fine-tune his JPK yachts, as well as liaise with the Breton manufacturer’s customers. In 2015 it was Kelbert who recommended Géry Trentesaux to
call on his services to deliver a JPK 11.80 from New Caledonia to Sydney to take part in the Sydney Hobart Race a few months after Géry’s overall victory in the Fastnet. Alexis remained onboard for the Hobart as navigator, winning their IRC division and finishing second overall.
Géry liked the young Norman and offered to sponsor him in the
Figaro (Custopol). This was the beginning of a long friendship and shared sailing experiences on ‘Sir’ Trentesaux’s ‘Courrier’ boats in a host of races such as the Sydney Hobart, RORC offshore series, Middle Sea Race… with a host of trophies to show for it. Between Jean-Pierre and Géry, Alexis lives in good company, to say the least. Another similar encounter took place a little later with Philippe
Frantz, owner of the Nivelt design Albator. Alexis brought his bag onboard and was so well liked by the skipper that he also backed the Norman in his quest for the Holy Grail at the Solitaire du Figaro through his company (Groupe Réel). The story continues. The day after our interview Alexis left for
St-Tropez to join Frantz for the final races of Les Voiles on his new boat, before heading to Malta to join Géry’s Long Courrier for the Middle Sea Race… This life of sailing passion has not always been easy, especially
in the early days when he had to do odd jobs and eat pasta from his lunchbox to make ends meet, until he found longterm partners and, in January 2022, a real job! He was hired as a sales repre- sentative by the sailmaker Technique Voile, which was bought out shortly afterwards by the Incidence Group, his current employer. In reality Alexis’s role is more technical than commercial, due
to his experience sailing on such a variety of boats, providing feed- back to the sail designers to help them develop their products. ‘It’s exciting because we have a great design office at Incidence.
This technical role suits me much better than working in an office… For the Figaro it allowed me to both train and sell Figaro sails. You have to be out in the field. That’s how you meet people and make progress. ‘My boss at the loft is Pierre-Antoine Morvan, a very good match
racing specialist who was also the helmsman of the Dunkerquois boat in the Tour de France à la Voile at the time.’ Morvan is sales
SEAHORSE 21
PASCAL HUIT
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