Above: Jean-Pierre Dick training in Biscay for the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre with co-skipper Fabien Delahaye onboard their Verdier-VPLP designed foiler St-Michel Virbac – the last in a long line of Imocas of this name. Dick won the TJV four times, but not in 2015 when he retired with foil damage. Another event that the city of Nice’s favourite son made his own was the Barcelona World Race, which he won in 2008 (left) with Irishman Damian Foxall and then again in 2011 with Loïck Peyron


Who is Jean-Pierre Dick? French professional sailor, born 1965. Trained as a veterinary surgeon, ditching a promising professional career to sail full time. ‘Re-trained’ in the Figaro class, and sailed at the top international level in various keelboat classes before making the step up to the Imoca class.


Cherry on the cake ‘So those 80 days you are out there it is like nothing else. But the race itself is only the cherry on the cake. ‘Besides, the game has changed a lot


since I started. We were once six or seven people on the team, now the big teams are 20-25 people, some more than 30. If I were to do it again I would want to be in a position where I could win, or at least be in the top group, and that is very hard with the young, very talented sailors who are out there today. ‘But there are exceptions, I know, like


Jean Le Cam…’ He laughs, as if it’s apparent to anyone


that Le Cam is like no other human being in sailing. ‘He is truly amazing… but for me, I’m not sure. I mean, I could easily be involved in the race in another position and support another sportsman, but I don’t want to spend my time in an office. ‘I want to be on the ocean. It’s my


42 SEAHORSE


passion. So my main focus now is to be out there, passing on to others what I have learnt. ‘Recently I have sailed my JP54 a lot –


it’s my main activity now. We do races like the ARC or Caribbean 600, where we have mainly an amateur crew – people who want to develop as offshore sailors. ‘I love to spend time with them and see


them grow. We won the ARC three times, and the JP54 is a really good boat… it’s been sailing now for more than 10 years and features a lot of innovation that was new at the time we designed and built it, some of it now common practice. ‘Unfortunately the boat was never the


commercial success we hoped for and in the end we only built one. Maybe it came out too expensive… ‘Now I focus on using the boat we have,


sailing with people I like. And spending time on the ocean… that is the thing that I will always love.’


A few results 1992:Winner, Tour de France à la Voile 2001:Winner, Tour de France à la Voile 2003:Winner, Transat Jacques Vabre with Nicolas Abiven 2005:Winner, Transat Jacques Vabre with Loïck Peyron 2005: Sixth place, Vendée Globe 2008: Retired from Vendée Globe (broken rudder when leading) 2008:Winner, Barcelona World Race with Damian Foxall 2011:Winner, Transat Jacques Vabre with Jérémie Beyou 2011:Winner, Barcelona World Race with Loïck Peyron 2011:World Champion, Imoca class 2013: Fourth place, Vendée Globe (after losing his keel north of Cape Verde Dick sailed more than 2,600 miles to the finish in Les Sables) 2017: Fourth place, Vendée Globe


q


ALAMY


YVAN ZEDDA


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