launched in summer 2023, on which Thomas won the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November. Based at La Base in Lorient for some time now, we’ve recently moved into a new and bigger specially built 1,200m2
hangar, with all the space, tools, systems
and offices (and plenty more!) needed to run two very complicated boats. A pretty dream environment for a project like this. The strength and particularity of this campaign is having two
boats. The new boat was in many ways driven by correcting all the wrongs on my boat. This includes a radically different hull shape, foils with a bigger tip and deeper shaft, a much refined new cockpit layout and more developed onboard systems compared to my 2019 Verdier design. Aside from being able to develop from Boat 1 into Boat 2, a two-
boat campaign has other inherent advantages. For starters it means that every time we leave the dock we have a sparring partner. Which doesn’t sound much if you are talking TP52 or America’s Cup sailing, but it is a big step forwards in Imoca world where with very limited sailing days every hour you are afloat becomes more productive. All of our testing and development can now be shared over two
boats and two complete technical teams. Once back ashore we then have at least twice as many experienced faces to sit around the table, feed in new ideas and assess progress. It also means Thomas can continually reference aspects of his
new boat with its predecessor; time and again the benefits of this have been quickly identified. Meanwhile, on Boat 1 I have the advan- tage of hitting the ground running on my first Vendée campaign. There are also big benefits of a two-boat programme for our project partners, something I will return to at a later date. 2023 was our first year with this two-boat set-up and, if the results
are something to go by, it’s been a success! As a team we managed seven podiums in the five big races in which we competed, we set a new 24-hour singlehanded distance record and ended up in first
place overall in the Imoca rankings for 2023! Today I constantly remind myself to appreciate each of these milestones as we go – so many times in the past I’ve been disappointed by putting it all off until the final ‘big one’. That said, the primary goal remains the Vendée Globe! And this year is going to be busy. The boats go back in the water
at the end of March. Then set-up and training in April before we sail to New York and then race back at the end of May. In June we have our new sails arriving for the Vendée Globe plus a few more sailing days with partners and sponsors. July and August the boats will come out of the water for a last
check-up. September we have the Défi Azimut and a couple of training sessions with the Pôle Finistère training centre. Finally, the boats must be in Les Sables d’Olonne by mid-October for three weeks in the race village before the start on 10 November. If you have time to make it down to Les Sables before the start I couldn’t recommend it enough, it’s an exciting hub of activity with some really cool boats and exciting innovations. One of our biggest remaining concerns is the infamous qualifi-
cation process for the Vendée Globe, which has posed much publicised problems for Banque Populaire with Clarisse Crémer and more recently Phil Sharp and OceansLab. Without going into the intricacies of the qualification process, we have to take the start of one of the transats and also want to give the boat a good workout on the downwind west-east transatlantic crossing in particular… the Vendée Globe being a largely downwind course. But we cannot afford major problems in either direction with such a tight schedule running into the start of the Vendée Globe in November. Whatever happens it’s going to be an exciting year. I’ve been
working on this opportunity for ‘a while’ now and who knows how many times I’ll get the opportunity. I aim to make the best of it!
q SEAHORSE 37
PIERRE BOURAS/DPPI/ALAMY
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