News Around the World
FRANCE Neck and neck The five Imocas and seven Volvo 65s racing in the Ocean Race Europe left Lorient on 29 May for three legs passing by Cascais and Alicante to finish in Genoa, with two coastal legs in Cascais and Genoa counting for the final placing. Just before the third leg Yoann Richomme, skipper of the Volvo 65 Mirpuri Foundation, was lying first equal (11pt) with Chris Nicholson’s AkzoNobel. We asked him why the Imocas were not dominating the Volvo 65s. ‘You have to be cautious with the numbers. In the first leg the
first Imocas were 50-60nm in front of us until they were stopped by a ridge of high pressure. Before that the foilers and one-designs showed comparable speed under spinnaker towards Spain. Then the Imocas killed us in a blast reaching period. After the ridge every- body grouped up again towards Portugal and when we arrived in Cascais the distances between boats were only marginal.’ The first V065, Offshore Team Germanyskippered by Robert Stanjek,
crossed the line on 2 June at 12h 47m, just a minute behind the first Imoca, Corum skippered by Nicolas Troussel, after four days at sea. ‘On leg 2 the race began with a long, fast run in 20-25kt of wind – much windier than in leg 1,’ commented Richomme. ‘For this race the Volvo 65 has added a big asymmetrical running
kite attached to the bowsprit. It allows a better VMG so we went faster than the Imocas because running in more than 20kt of wind the foilers cannot fly. They left Cascais in front of us too but we caught up later on. The run took us as far south as Portugal (Lagos). ‘After a transition zone which slowed the whole fleet we were
then forced to sail upwind in 25kt towards Morocco. At that moment we were with LinkedOut and she was faster than us. Sailing upwind the Imoca foilers can reach 14-15kt speed whereas we can only achieve 12-13kt. Contrary to what one might imagine, foilers are
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relatively better upwind in breezy conditions than running. After short tacking through the Straits of Gibraltar the wind eased. And sailing upwind in light weather is not favourable for the Imocas because they have a big wetted surface and drag their big foils. ‘Also the Volvos have a huge Code 0 which makes them unbeat-
able in these conditions – while Imocas really suffer. At this point we managed to escape with AkzoNobel and were set for a match- race to the end.’ The result of all this switching around is that the first Imoca, LinkedOut, arrived in Alicante after all the VO65s! ‘The behaviour of the Imocas in relation to us does not surprise
me. It’s in line with what I thought. They are reaching machines that go well upwind in stronger winds but are unexceptional running. For my part, I have a lot of fun on our one-designs, which are good boats with good competition,’ concluded Richomme. Farr Yacht Design must be pleased with what happened in the
race, and from a sporting point of view the first edition of the Ocean Race Europe was a complete success. It attracted an international fleet, with Vendée Globe stars and their mostly French crew in the Imoca fleet, along with 11th Hour from the US and Offshore Team Germanywith Frenchman Benjamin Dutreux onboard. He did a great job winning leg 1 on this old non-foiling Owen Clark design (the ex- Acciona which lost her keel in the 2012 VG and then later on caught fire!). The Volvo 65 fleet was even more cosmopolitan, with older stars onboard such as Simeon Tienpont, Bouwe Bekking and Chris Nicholson, now all sailing with young crews. The cherry on the cake is the very tight competition; we will have
to wait for the result of the last coastal race in Genoa to get the names of the winners in both classes. In the Volvo fleet there were joint-leaders at the start in Alicante and in the Imoca fleet three leading teams with the same number of points: LinkedOut, Offshore Team Germany and 11th Hour Racing Team…
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