Left: when Trentesaux returned to racing in the late ’90s he did so with a vengeance, bolting Tour Voile campaigns (here in 2005) and one-design regattas onto his fast-accelerating IRC programme. The ‘side events’ also proved handy for recruiting crew to his squad with well-known names such as Tour Voile winner Jimmy Pahun soon finding themselves wearing the Courrier T-shirt. As well as four Admiral’s Cups (three with Piet Vroon) Trentesaux has raced the Hobart three times, winning Class 4 (above) in 2015 and very nearly taking overall victory on this chartered JPK 1080. The French skipper is back in Sydney this December, this time with his latest larger JPK 1180 Courrier Recommandé – Jacques Valer’s design proving no less competitive than any of its very successful predecessors
He even served for a time as a vice-
commodore at the RORC, 40 years after he was first wearing his oilskins on the Solent. The owner of Les Courriers had made his offshore debut in a RORC race, venturing north from his usual sailing waters in Saint Cast, just outside Saint Malo. Géry Trentesaux competed in his first
Cowes-Dinard at the age of 15, on the family Dufour 35. But it was when he became a regular face in the crew onboard Dutchman Piet Vroon’s yachts (commut- ing between the Netherlands and the Lille region where the Trentesaux family lives… and where we are neighbours) that he really got his foot in the stirrup. It was the time of Formidable (ex-
Marionette), a Ron Holland design that was ‘the beautiful boat of northern Europe’. The young Trentesaux raced for six seasons alongside Vroon: three Admiral’s Cups, the Onion Patch in the United States, the Sar- dinia Cup… Vroon is an owner who is famously attentive to his crew, generous, who took the young Trentesaux to Pascal Atkey’s shop in Cowes a day before his first Fastnet Race to fit him out with more seri- ous clothing. Piet Vroon made enough of an impact on him that he now quotes the spirit of Formidable as a model for his own crew. The Figaro years followed. With Auto
Sodifac, a Joubert-Nivelt Half Tonner, already five years old, Trentesaux ranked third in 1984 in his first Figaro, a remark- able result for a rookie. ‘I had old sails, my boat wasn’t up to speed and I was missing 0.3pt of rating,’ he remembers with some precision. ‘If I had believed more in myself I think I could have won…’ At the age of 25 he bought out his
father’s textile company and professional duties began to take over. ‘I arrived for the start of the Figaro still with work filling my head; things had changed suddenly for me!’ After three Figaro races Gery handed
over the reins to François Lamiot, whom he sponsored and who, with a second place in his turn also made a stunning debut. Over time Trentesaux will help several promising sailors, many of them crewing for him along the way: Lamiot on the Figaro or Jimmy Pahun on the Tour de France, more recently Alexis Loison (who was onboard for the Sydney Hobart and Middle Sea Race) on the Figaro circuit, Antoine Carpentier in Class40 in the last Route du Rhum or Thomas Ruyant in his 2020 Vendée Globe project. ‘People,’ he said, ‘who are worth it and
who represent the spirit of the Courrier. With Piet Vroon, I was a student with little financial means and I took advantage of his generosity. Now I’m trying to share it with others, it’s no more complicated than that.’ The Courrier spirit? ‘I try to have well-
behaved people on my crew, with attrac- tive characters and interesting personali- ties,’ explains Trentesaux. A group of talented amateurs, ‘people
passionately attached to a shared ambition, extremely competent, and virtually profes- sional in their approach, this makes for a powerful force onboard all Géry’s yachts,’ according to Sam Marsaudon, builder of the MC34 Courrier Vintage, who sailed with the team for two seasons. If in the J/80s and Dragons he surrounds
himself with young professionals, racing offshore Trentesaux takes a different view. ‘I don’t want to be in the office, to reconnect
with bosses from employee to employee, I want to sail with friends.’ And loyalty prevails over pure competence: ‘Some people drop or swap out a crewmember before a major race, I never do that; priority always goes to the one who has the most miles onboard. There may be some changes between the most physical long races and easier courses but I will never force someone to step down if they do not wish to.’ And this from his boat captain Arnaud
Aubry, the only professional in the story: ‘Géry is quite a character, he knows how to bring together the right people, able to function very well in a true Corinthian spirit. They are the most talented and competitive amateurs, who like to compete with the best and who are then really very happy to beat the pros! There is never one loud voice onboard, the boat sails in a good mood and with complete mutual respect.’ Among the pillars of the ‘clan’ (the term
is Trentesaux’s) are people like Malouin Eric Sendra, winner of the Whitbread in 1986 with Lionel Péan. The oldest now is François Lamiot, whose meeting with Trentesaux deserves to be told: they are four years apart and Lamiot, the younger of the two, came by moped for winter training in Dunkirk. The races are can- celled due to the weather, Géry still takes the family boat out with his sister and they also take along this teenager who is pass- ing by. ‘There was wind, frost, it was one of those days when you really couldn’t go out,’ Lamiot recalls. A few years later they meet again when
the sponsorship file of a Figaro race candi- date lands more or less by chance on the young company manager’s desk. And they
SEAHORSE 49
STEFANO GATTINI/ROLEX
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