Deceptive… every detail large and small on the JP54 says 2022 custom racer-cruiser, as does the immaculate condition in which Dick maintains his favourite yacht. The Verdier design has won three ARC races on the trot and is a regular top scorer at big IRC events including the Caribbean 600… helped by a combination of a big sailplan, a light 9-tonne displacement (that price problem, again) and masses of righting moment courtesy of the big canting keel… Plus the fact that the dramatic interior carousel (left) – so effortlessly rotated to windward – incorporates all the yacht’s batteries and hydraulics as well as the nav station, galley and comfy skipper seat
‘Fortunately the time I lost my keel I had
quick reflexes. It was blowing maybe 20kt, I had a reef and J2, quite a lot of sail… the boat suddenly heeled a lot. I threw the sheets off immediately and luckily for me the boat came back upright. ‘Fortunately there was water ballast to
help. I got the sails down and then slept a bit before discussing the situation with my team. Was there any way we could con- tinue the race? ‘It’s in situations like this where you
absolutely have to stay calm and not sud- denly do something wild and rash. Look at the situation, discuss it with your team, explore possible solutions. ‘In the Vendée Globe you are not
allowed to receive physical help, but you can talk to others. Conversely, you’d rather not waste too much time talking… but that’s something you learn over time. In the end I sailed 2,600 miles without a keel, and finished in fourth place. ‘In my first Vendée Globe I pretty much
destroyed everything onboard because I was relatively inexperienced. So I actually spent most of the race fixing things! ‘But, you know, in the end you’re happy
anyway. Because I finished. I got much more confident, I had done hard things, made something out of my life. It was a big dream that I managed to realise.’
And then, suddenly: nothing When the sailors finish a Vendée Globe more than a million people gather in Les Sable d’Olonne to welcome them. How does it feel, I ask? ‘It’s very emotional,’ he says. ‘It’s really
big. But so is the start – you leave from the same harbour and there’s a sea of people there too. Then 15 minutes after the start and already there are only one or two motorboats to be seen. ‘And soon after that... nothing. Sud-
denly you’re on your own for three months. It’s really strange.’
40 SEAHORSE
‘That’s something…’ Looking back on his career, what is the biggest achievement? ‘I won the first two Barcelona World Races,’ he says, ‘and there were a lot of good sailors competing then, they were strong opponents. ‘There was Michel Desjoyeaux, Vincent
Riou, François Gabart, Alex Thomson… so it was a big success for me. ‘Yet, as I said earlier, I haven’t had such
good results in the Vendée Globe. And I really wanted to win. But I was still in four Vendée Globes, and completed three of them. There are only two men in the world who have done that, Jean Le Cam and me. ‘That’s something,’ he says with a laugh. ‘I am in very good company.’
What now? Jean-Pierre Dick’s last Vendée Globe was 2017. The year after finishing that race he did not start a new campaign as he would usually. This time he chose another path, launching his own one-design class instead – Easy to Fly, a 26ft foiling catamaran. ‘Today Easy to Fly has found its place,’
he explains. ‘Young people want foiling, and this is a class that is fairly accessible. ‘We have 12 boats built now and an
annual series running. Covid obviously stopped us a lot, but in 2022 we will have eight or nine active teams on the circuit… She is designed by Guillaume Verdier and so of course the boats are just fantastic.’ Latterly, as well as his foiling cats, the
space left by the Vendée Globe has contin- ued to be filled by other projects, in partic- ular the JP54, a 54ft fast offshore boat that brings a lot of his Imoca experience into a more accessible dual-purpose package.
100 per cent or nothing ‘To do another Vendée Globe… I never said I would never do it again, but I have done four of them and I know the amount of effort and dedication it requires. If you can- not do it 100 per cent it’s better not to do it.
‘This race is not something to fool
around with. A Vendée Globe sailor I know from a previous race – I won’t say who it is – hadn’t prepared so well, and he knew it. He stayed at my hotel before the start, and the day the start went off we were together in the lift on the way down. And I could see that he was in a state of what I can only describe as shock… ‘He was in complete disarray. The day
before, they’d had to help him out of the room, he was banging on the door and shouting and screaming. The pressure had broken him, even before the start. ‘His mast fell down two days after take-
off, and no one was told how it happened. I don’t want to end up like that,’ he says. ‘I’m telling you this so you’ll understand how important it is to be motivated and focused. To do the work thoroughly before starting. I’ve done it four times in a row. And I don’t know if I have the strength to put myself through it again.’
A piece of your life ‘I’m saying this even though I really love the race. It’s a life-changing experience. But when the next Vendée Globe starts I will be close to 60 years old. And we have to be athletes. ‘I also feel that I am not thinking as fast
as I used to. It’s not so easy to cope with lack of sleep any more. Even though I have the experience these boats are hard to sail. There’s a lot of noise, a lot of stress. You have to be very active mentally too. ‘Every time you take part in the Vendée
Globe it’s a piece of your life. You have to be hugely motivated for years before. ‘First there are sponsors, building the
boat, putting the team together – you’re leading a large team that you also have to motivate and keep going. And always the complexity is huge, you must know every little thing about the boat. It requires enor- mous motivation and the pressure is high. Every day of the campaign.’
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