The first three Class40s in the Normandy Channel Race were covered by five minutes in time but five years in vintage. The Lombard design Carac and third-placed Mach40 MkIII Aïna Enfance are 2017 designs while Phil Sharp’s Imerys is an original Sam Manuard designed Mach40 MkI from 2013. Sharp’s older, less powerful boat was helped by lightish conditions, but praise is due once again for the way this class is managed, tweaking the rules in a way that allows development but ensures that boats of such different ages can still compete – not in all conditions, but most designs have a favoured range where they remain fully competitive against the newest boats. The result is that today’s most successful offshore class continues not only to prosper but also remain technically interesting
and finishing less than five minutes shy of the winner. ‘We were jostling for first place from beginning to end with the other two,’ skipper Aymeric Chappellier points out. ‘But our three-way match was transformed into a duel as we approached Raz Blanchard and we thought Caracwas cooked. But no. That’s how it goes! We made a few errors but overall we sailed well.’ Fabien Delahaye (who is also racing on Dongfeng in the VOR!)
backs up his teammate: ‘Even after the race we have no regrets. We ended up being powerless in a calm spell 45 miles from the finish. Our rivals saw that we’d got stuck. One went around us on one side; the other opted for the other side… ‘It’s frustrating but we know we gave our best. We put in a huge
number of manoeuvres. During the first two days the two of us drank 24 litres of water, which shows that we spared no effort… We set an almighty rhythm,’ adds Fabien, ‘but there was no stability in the weather at all and we could never relax for even a minute.’ Curiously, nine boats retired from the race.
Encore (Meilhat and Gahinet) On Sunday 3 June nine double-handed Imoca crews set sail at the start of the Monaco Globe Series, a brand new 1,300-mile race in the Mediterranean. It’s been six years since the Imocas last took part in a race in the Mediterranean with the 2012 Europa Warm Up. The Monaco racecourse took the fleet to the western coast of Corsica before entering the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia, then to Sicily before going back to Monaco passing through the Balearic Islands. But because of a forecast of very light airs actually the boats did not get to Sicily nor to the Balearic Islands! François Gabart’s winning boat of the 2012 Vendée Globe, SMA,
now sailed by Paul Meilhat and Gwénolé Gahinet, won after 3d 19h at sea (covering just 815 miles), 1h 46m ahead of Monin (the original and very old Safran) driven by Alain Gautier and Isabelle Joschke. The third boat, and first foiler, was Newrest sailed by Fabrice Amédéo and Eric Péron. SMA has been at the top of most of the recent offshore races
but unfortunately Paul Meilhat, who intends to enter the next Vendée, lost his sponsor. The Mediterranean weather was bad for the foilers.
Bureau Vallée (ex-Banque Populaire and winner of the last Vendée) and Malizia II (ex-Gitana 2016 and now being raced in Monaco colours by Boris Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi) were both a long way behind the non-foiler SMA at the finish. The new Monaco event is important because it is the first race
on the calendar in the new Imoca World Championship, called the Globe Series. Culminating in the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe, two races will take place each year with both solo and double-handed competitions. For 2018 the second race in the Globe Series will be the prestigious Route du Rhum. In 2019 there will be one new event in the spring and then the Transat Jacques Vabre. In 2020 the skippers will take part in The Transat and then in the New York- Vendée. These Globe Series events will also count as qualifiers for the Vendée Globe.
Encore (VPLP) After many months of rumour and counter-rumour, the French naval architecture firm VPLP Design, pioneers in foiling monohulls, have been appointed to deliver the next Hugo Boss Imoca for English skipper Alex Thomson. The design phase is well underway with VPLP working closely with Alex Thomson’s own technical team led by Peter Hobson. Build will start at the end of June. The announcement comes just six months after the UK-based
ocean racing team celebrated the renewal of their agreements with their longterm sponsor, one of the most coveted partnerships in the sport. Together Alex Thomson Racing and Hugo Boss have broken numerous records and enjoyed both second and third-place finishes in the Vendée Globe. Founded by Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost,
VPLP is made up of a team of naval architects and designers who, collectively, have helped to develop some of the world’s most successful and innovative racing boats, including the winners of the last two editions of the Vendée Globe. VPLP also co-designed the current Hugo Boss which Thomson raced to second place in the last Vendée Globe. Ross Daniel, technical director at Alex Thomson Racing, told us:
‘Our decision to work with VPLP again was based on who they are SEAHORSE 17
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JEAN-MARIE LIOT
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