Hard to believe here but one of the big benefits of having a scow hull form is a generally much drier ride for the skipper… Certainly this has proved to be the case in the Mini 6.50s and Class40s – but perhaps at Imoca 60 scale the rules start to change! That said, Armel Tripon’s Sam Manuard-designed Imoca scow L’Occitane has displayed a genuine and welcome propensity to lift over more waves than she ploughs through, so for her Vendée Globe skipper she probably falls into the category of being the least bad option
one of these eight new-generation foilers is the first to cross the finish line at Les Sables d’Olonne in January next year, starting with the navigator with the greatest prepa- ration time. But the Vendée Globe is the Vendée Globe and theoretically one out of every two boats should not, as mentioned earlier, reach the finish due to mechanical breakdowns or collisions with UFOs with unfortunate consequences. It is not a foregone conclusion but the
new boats have speed in hand against the other ‘foilers’ (19 of the 33 boats have foils!) of the previous generation or outright older boats with new-style appendages. People to watch here are, I think, the two women Sam (Davies) and Isabelle (Joschke); Boris Her- mann whose ex-Gitana has the same foils as Isabelle’s boat; Yannick Bestaven; and most of all Kevin Escoffier who has a very success- ful boat, the former PRB, which is very light and maintained at the top level, because this VG rookie showed that his presence was indispensable as part of the winning Dongfeng team in the last Volvo Ocean Race. On Dongfeng his nickname was ‘Mac Gyver’ because he was always repairing things – and on a solo VG it is a vital asset to be able to solve problems on your own. There are still 14 non-foilers that will
somehow have their own race with possible surprises in the final standings if more of the foilers fall like flies. On paper we will witness an exciting match between the young Clarisse Crémer onboard the speedy Banque Populaire X (ex-Macif 2012) against the veteran of the race, aka the ‘king’ Jean Le Cam on his faithful boat (Michel Desjoyeaux’s Farr-designed Foncia 2008)
54 SEAHORSE
that he knows 100 per cent and improves a little more each time. Also Romain Attana- sio, Maxime Sorel, Damien Seguin who has only one hand, Figariste Benjamin Dutreux, or even Clément Giraud will invite them- selves to this Homeric duel opposing Clarisse and Jean in the daggerboard field!
Ladies are back It was not until the third edition of the VG (1996-97) that two women were first seen. At the end of a particularly difficult journey, Catherine Chabaud aboard the former red cigar of VDH, became the first woman to complete a race around the world without stopping. She finished sixth.
Isabelle
Autissier arrived well ahead of her at Les Sables on her speedy PRB but was not ranked after stopping in Cape Town with a broken rudder. Two pioneers who opened up extreme adventure to women sailors. Four years later tiny Ellen MacArthur
brings the event to the world stage after an exemplary course, to the point of taking the lead of the race from Professeur Desjoyeaux for a few hours by going up the Atlantic side of the Doldrums. Cather- ine Chabaud was less lucky – she broke her mast shortly before the finish. In 2004/05 two French women, Anne
Liardet and Karen Leibovici, ranked 11th and 13th respectively. In 2008/09 we had two English sailors, Samantha Davies and Dee Caffari, respectively classified fourth (Sam arrived third in Les Sables but the compensation granted to Marc Guillemot for assisting the gravely injured Yann Eliès deprived her of the podium) and sixth. The same Samantha came back in 2012 but
was forced to retire after her mast broke. Curiously there was no woman in the
last edition, while this time there are six of them among the 33 entries. The only ‘vet- eran’ is Sam Davies, 46. Her 10-year-old boat is the one Jérémie Beyou used four years ago when he finished third in the VG. Since then the VPLP/Verdier design has undergone many modifications includ- ing a new rigging set-up and a new pair of enormously wide foils (actually two new sets) designed by Guillaume Verdier. With her experience, her cautious prepa-
ration and her determination, Sam should be the first woman to reach Les Sables d’Olonne. Even an overall podium is within her reach. Her rivals are all newcomers to the VG. The 43-year-old Franco-German Isabelle Joschke is undoubtedly the most dangerous because she has good experience in ocean racing, especially in the Class40, and she has a good boat, the former 13-year-old Safran with a pair of new- generation foils designed by VPLP (the same as those of Boris Hermann’s boat). A dismasting during the Route du Rhum
and then a grounding at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre hindered Isabelle’s preparation but her recent performances in the Vendée Arctique and the Azimut Chal- lenge gave her confidence and showed that this pugnacious woman, coached by Alain Gautier, could play in the big leagues. Clarisse Crémer, 30 years old, is a bit of a
revelation. In 2017, when no one expected her to show so well, she won the Mini Fastnet and did a nice Mini Transat. Her talents as a sailor, her personality and expertise in communication caught the
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