News Around the World
Vendée Globe race director Jacques Caraës and Jean Le Cam competing in the 2001 Transat Jacques Vabre on the VPLP-designed Orma 60 Bonduelle. The pair finished 4th overall but nearly 24 hours after race winner Frank Cammas sailing with Swiss sailor Steve Ravussin on the original Groupama. Bonduelle made it back onto the ‘front page’ more than 10 years later when Artemis bought the boat and stretched it to 72ft to use as a test platform for initial wing development for their ill-fated 2013 America’s Cup challenger
FRANCE Plenty of new Imoca! As 2019 gets underway the Imoca class has never experienced such enthusiasm! At least seven more new-generation Imocas will now be launched in 2019 and more than 30 boats will be out there racing this summer, with the biggest event, the Transat Jacques Vabre in October, bringing together a record line-up with no fewer than 25-30 of the world’s best double-handed crews expected. ‘The current boom in the class is totally unprecedented,’ says a
smiling Jacques Caraës, Route du Rhum and Vendée Globe Race Director. So far around 10 sailors have already qualified for the next Vendée Globe, but in total as many as 35 VG projects will be up and running in 2019, while the Notice of Race for the 2020 edition limits the number of entrants to just 30. ‘This is the first time there has been so much demand for the
Vendée Globe,’ explained Caraës. ‘Qualifying will be down to the number of miles raced, so there is going to be a real competition to get to the startline next November… the sailors who didn’t complete the Route du Rhum no longer have a joker to play. The pressure is really on for anyone who is starting later as well.’ Out of the 20 Imoca sailors who took part in the Route du Rhum
18 are continuing with their programme as they make their way towards the Vendée Globe. The only exceptions are Erik Nigon, who is looking for funding and has put his boat up for sale, and Vincent Riou, who has handed over the helm of PRB to Kevin Escoffier. Meanwhile, the two skippers who finished first and second in
the Route du Rhum are now back out trying to replace their previous Imoca sponsors whose commitments expired when Paul Meilhat’s SMA and Yann Eliès’s Ucar-St Michel reached Guadeloupe. Winner of the last Volvo Ocean Race onboard Dongfeng, and
also head of the Banque Populaire research team, Escoffier certainly has a lot of technical knowledge and is a very skilled racer. After specialising in crewed racing he is making the switch to solo sailing. Other projects are currently well advanced, either building new
or purchasing and refitting older designs. And some of these are led by sailors from outside France! British sailors Pip Hare and Richard Tolkien have, respectively, bought the former Superbigou and Pindar. The Belgian skipper Denis Van Weynbergh is now owner
20 SEAHORSE
of Nandor Fa’s former Spirit of Hungary, while expert Italian solo skipper Giancarlo Pedote will be taking the helm of Yann Eliès’s Ucar-St Michel. Pedote is Italy’s best round-the-world singlehanded prospect since Around Alone winner Giovanni Soldini, now skipper of the MOD 70 Maserati. St Malo-based Maxime Sorel will be entering the circuit too on
the former Le Souffle du Nord. As for Jean Le Cam and Sébastien Destremau, they too may well return to the Imoca class this year… But there are now few if any modern foiling Imocas available. In
January the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre winner in the Class40, Yannick Bestaven, confirmed that with his sponsor Maître Coq he had purchased the 2016 Verdier-VPLP design Safran, raced in the last Vendée Globe by Morgan Lagravière (who retired). Bestaven had seriously considered buying Alex Thomson’s 2016 Hugo Boss but decided against the purchase for two reasons… ‘One was the price [laughing]’, says Bestaven. ‘Hugo Boss was for sale for 300,000 euros more than Safran, which by the way has been dry-stored ashore since the end of the last Vendée Globe. ‘Also, we bought our boat from Roland Jourdain’s company Kairos
and there will be a lot more passing on of experience, including having “Bilou” onboard during much of our training. This is a huge time saver for us. ‘Actually, Kairos will continue to control the boat with us until the
end of this year when we take her over completely. They are also managing the campaign of Japanese Kojiro Shiraishi who has a new boat building at Multiplast. We may sail with Kojiro on our boat sometimes while his own Imoca is being finished. ‘This level of transitioning support would not have been possible
working with Alex’s British team – although I think that Hugo Boss has maybe a little more potential as she is architecturally quite extreme and closer to the new boats than the rest of the 2016 generation.’ Actually, we hear that Alex’s boat has now been sold too, so there is little choice for skippers trying to secure an Imoca built after 2012. Most of the budget to buy Safran came from the sale (for about
600,000 euros) of Bestaven’s previous Imoca, the 2006 Farr- designed ex-Initiatives Coeur, plus support from a small group of private backers – and a large bank loan taken out by the skipper
BENOIT STICHELBAUT/DPPI
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