News Around the World
Yoann Richomme does his bit for the camera before heading off to win the Rhum Class40 division; and posing proudly in front of his new Imoca at Multiplast. For the Rhum Richomme raced a development of the Lombard Lift V1 on which he won the 2018 race, his V2 featuring much sharper chines, lower down and carried right forward to the bow. The bite provided by these sharp forward chines gave Richomme an edge in the upwind (especially) and fetching which dominated the first half of this year’s Rhum, helping him take enough of an early lead over his reaching/VMG-oriented rivals to defend successfully in the later stages when the wind moved aft. The eye-catching feature of Richomme’s new Imoca – and the similar design of Thomas Ruyant – is the old-school forefoot with a much finer, deeper entry than any of his rivals racing new scow designs. Maybe as a skipper he just likes to be first to the top mark…
For this new Jules Verne attempt, aboard the first truly flying
Ultim, launched in 2017, they take the same crew of six as usual (Charles, Franck Cammas, Erwan Israel, Morgan Lagravière, David Boileau, Yann Riou). The boat is a better performing machine on paper than Sails of Change but may also be more vulnerable due to her profusion of highly technical appendages. Charles explains that good weather windows are difficult to find
leaving Brest because ‘you must get to the Equator in less than six days and then be at the front of a depression off Argentina. Plus you then need a lot of positive transitions along the way!’ There is also the small matter of having a reliable boat: so far
the flying Ultims (including Sodebo) have never managed more than 17 days of navigation during a Jules Verne attempt, because of technical damage due (or not) to collisions with UFOs...
New champion Corentin Douguet won both the European Trophy and the 2022 Class40 Championship in front of Xavier Macaire and last year’s winner Antoine Carpentier, sailing respectively a Pogo S4 (Verdier) and a Mach40.4 (Manuard). Of the five events that count for the championship three drew
a record number of participants and in the final outcome these races were decisive: the two-handed CIC Normandy Channel Race and the solo Drheam Cup, both credited with double-points, and even more the Route du Rhum, with a points coefficient of four. Corentin Douguet finished 2, 2 and 3 respectively. No fewer than
59 Class40 skippers feature in the championship ranking. Onboard his new scow Quéguiner Innoveo, a Lombard Lift 40 V2, Douguet won the early solo Les 1000 Milles des Sables and later in the season the 40 Malouine Lamotte, counting both for the European Trophy. Altogether the well-known Figariste had a remarkable 2022
season, his full-time debut on the Class40 circuit. ‘A circuit I have very much enjoyed racing on, one I hope to stay on, or at the very least come back to in the years to come, because it is incredibly dynamic racing and the Class40 community is a real pleasure to be part of.
22 SEAHORSE ‘The races are fun and well-organised, the competition is fierce,
the boats are great, even if they are getting harder and harder, and there is a super atmosphere between competitors. It’s the perfect cocktail, not just for the sailors, but also for the owners and sponsors,’ wrote the navigator from Nantes for the annual Guide Class40. ‘In terms of boat design a significant step was taken after the
2018 Route du Rhum with the arrival of all the numerous scows, but this new generation will itself no doubt continue to evolve over the years to come. I am sure that much will be learnt from this latest trans atlantic race and probably lead to even more progress. ‘It will be very interesting to see how things develop,’ added
Corentin, who has already sold the boat he was sailing in 2022! The upcoming season yet again features a packed Class40
calendar, including two transatlantic races, a race to the Azores and back, the 50th edition of the Fastnet Race, the 2023 TJV, as well as races in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. As ever there will be something for everyone.
Imoca and The Ocean Race For the first time since the 1993 Whitbread Race, after a trial on the Ocean Race Europe in 2021, the newly renamed Ocean Race welcomes two classes of boats. There are the VO65 one-designs that took part in the last two
editions of the round-the-world race. Each time the level was tight, so much so that during the last edition three teams took the start of the last stage tied on points overall. Finally the Chinese Dongfeng team, led by Charles Caudrelier, overcame the Spanish and Dutch teams of Mapfre and Team Brunel, taking the lead just a few miles before the finish in The Hague in the Netherlands. In 2023 the newcomers are the Imocas, originally designed for
the Vendée Globe, which of course is a solo round-the world-race. This time the VO65s are only taking part in the three legs of the race in the Northern Hemisphere (the first, sixth and last), while the five Imocas competing will race all seven legs, of which the very long legs (three and five) carry double points.
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