News Around the World
FRANCE Forza, Italia For the first time in the history of the Class40 championship two Italian skippers occupy the first two places in the 2023 ranking. Alberto Bona sailed all five big races of the calendar on his Mach40.5 IBSA. But Ambrogio Beccaria raced four, missing Les Sables-Horta! Thus his Alla Grande Pirelli missed the top step of the podium
by 5pt. The Musa 40, 100 per cent designed and built in Italy, was the year’s best all-round Class40, winning two major events… the Normandy Channel Race and Transat Jacques Vabre, and finishing second in two others. The other ‘foreign’ crew in the top 10 is the British duo Alister Richardson/Brian Thompson, racing Tquila, the first Scow that was designed by Manuard back in 2018 (ex-Banque du Léman). They finished fifth in the championship. The other remarkable aspect of this 2023 championship is a
record number of 98 entries took part, proving the astonishing energy of the Class40 which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024. The 2024 calendar includes six events that count towards the
championship, starting with the Caribbean 600 and wrapping up in September with the doublehanded CIC Normandy Channel Race – celebrating its 15th anniversary. In between is an attractive menu including three transatlantic races, for crewed and solo racers. Class40 promotes three other annual trophies: in Europe, the
USA and the Mediterranean. The Med series in particular is growing nicely. Kito de Pavant explains: ‘For its third year the Mediterranean Trophy includes an impressive nine races. More and more Class40s are making their way to the Mediterranean, and the creation of the ambitious new Med Max Race should boost the number of boats for the second part of the season.’ All the more so given that the conditions in the Med have a
tendency to reshuffle the cards between the Scows and the Sharpies, which should motivate the owners of ‘pointy-bows’.
The race begins If there is an IRC yacht that made the headlines last year she was Didier Gaudoux’s new Lann Aël 3. The day after an amazing perfor- mance at Spi Ouest Didier, previously owner of a 39ft one-off designed by Bernard Nivelt (winner of the 2017 Fastnet), explained that his
20 SEAHORSE
new Lann Aël 3 was 35ft long for his ‘personal comfort’, competing in the big two-handed divisions where most boats are 10-11m. Didier’s approach was novel. He wanted a one-off design but he
wanted two designers to deliver it: Bernard Nivelt, an IRC expert, and Sam Manuard, whose Class40s and Imocas are well proven. Didier, who has as much passion for construction and development as for racing, feasted on the discussions with his two architects. With a displacement of just 3.7 tonnes, this sleek one-off built
on male moulds in Verdon by Lalou Multi Composites is immediately recognisable by the quality of the finish… and by her rounded nose, ‘but not as fat as that of a scow!’ Gaudoux remonstrates. Under IRC she is credited with a TCC of 1.085. Huge for a 35-footer! However, time and again last year Gaudoux showed that he could save his time, notably winning the European two-handed championship. Actually Gaudoux usually goes so fast he no longer plays on the
same piece of water as his opponents. Lann Aël 3 is a true IRC one- off, so she was expensive at about 600,000 euros ready to race. But she was elected IRC boat of the year and delighted her owner. The boat’s great performance did not escape Christian Bouroullec.
The founder of the Structures Shipyard has built a solid reputation for building speedy offshore boats… the Pogo Minis and Class40s are very famous and his fast cruising designs are extremely popular (and hard to buy on the secondhand market!). So last year Christian also contacted the Manuard/Nivelt duo,
asking them for a new design of the same flavour as Lann Aël 3 but a little smaller (10.26m). Her first handicap simulations give an IRC rating around 1.060… above the minimum for the big doublehanded (and solo) races including those transats that make you dream. The objective is to offer a fun boat that planes easily, but also without any crucial ‘hole’ in its performance. In short, the squaring of a circle that even seems to exceed the
periphery of the IRC. The Pogo RC, as she is called, is built using the same technique as for the Pogo 40S4: infusion, Vinylester resin and foam. The first launch is scheduled for this autumn and produc- tion will begin properly in winter 2025. A challenge worthy of the skills of the Structures Shipyard whose founder and his two sons, Paul and Tanguy, now at the helm, are all rich with racing DNA. The IRC entry of the Pogo builder is an event in itself. Who would
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/ALEA
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