News Around the World
Maxime Sorel did what he needed to do in his first Vendée Globe, getting around without any drama to finish 10th and bringing his 2007 Verdier-VPLP design (above) back in good enough shape to put straight on the market so he could start building a new Verdier design – also backed by V&B Monbana. Sorel’s last V&B is the boat Thomas Ruyant somehow got to New Zealand full of water and wobbling like jelly in the 2016 VG after suffering huge structural damage in a collision – the bow threatening to detach at any moment
‘In particular we strengthened the stern area from the inside because
I could see during my 17 days of sailing that the various elements (self-steering and so on) connected to it were overloading the original transom – I could see some parts moving around quite a bit… ‘We also transformed the front cabin into a sail locker and made
a much larger, stronger fabric canopy which I can now close up like a tent to be completely sheltered when it is cold. Plus we made adjustments to the rudder because there was an alignment problem that caused vibrations when the wind was strong. ‘All this took us a little time, but I am very happy because today
the boat is technically ready to sail around the world.’ A new reinforced mast has been stepped to the original length, meaning that it is 1m taller than the reduced mast on VDH’s 36-footer. About five months before the start of the GGR in Les Sables
d’Olonne, on 4 September, Damien Guillou will now at last be able to focus on the sporting aspect. The challenge he is about to take on is huge and the skipper doesn’t want to leave anything to chance: ‘I’m going to do a lot of sailing now… I want to navigate as much as I can in strong winds and rough seas to see the behaviour of the boat in heavy conditions in Golden Globe configuration, that is to say with all the equipment and weight that will be onboard for the race (roughly 2 tonnes more than empty). ‘It will also be an opportunity for me to practise chart navigation
again, working with just a sextant, compass and chronometer, because I put all that aside when we were busy in the shed. ‘The objective is to try to anticipate anything that could get
damaged or cause problems on such a long race by watching every- thing very closely during these practice periods at sea.’ Before starting these training sessions Damien only had to
complete a mandatory six-hour course under jury rig in more than 15kt of wind. Once this was done the PRBskipper will have fulfilled all the conditions required by the Golden Globe Race regulations. Interviewed about his main reason for entering the GGR, Damien
gives a simple answer: ‘I want to win the race.’ He believes that his most serious rivals are the two Brits Simon Curwen and Guy Waites. Both have plenty of experience in their
22 SEAHORSE
GGR boats and strong offshore racing credentials. Simon finished second in the 2001 Mini Transat and won the Fastnet two-handed division on his J/105 Voador. Guy also has tens of thousands of miles in his wake, including participation in the Clipper Round the World Race. Patrice Carpentier
NEW ZEALAND On 7 April a fleet of yachts will set off from Auckland on a 500-mile race up and around the northern tip of the country, rounding a remote and uninhabited trio of islands called the Three Kings before return- ing to their starting point. The Three Kings Race is the closing event in what Covid delays have extended into more than a year of cel- ebrating the 150th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The pandemic wrought havoc on an ambitious programme of social and competitive events, but the club has done well to soldier on and adapt to an endless series of lockdowns, cancel- lations and postponements. Proceedings began in earnest in the summer of 2021 with the
America’s Cup defence in Auckland. With much of the world still under severe pandemic restriction and virtually all international sport suspended, thousands of fans thronged the Auckland water- front every day as the foiling AC75s pranced across the sunlit Waitemata Harbour at unprecedented speeds. While the event was a summer highlight, it did not entirely escape
the constrictions of Covid. The Youth America’s Cup was cancelled by bureaucratic decree and superyachts were barred entry. The majestic J-Class, which had committed to a summer of racing in Auckland, also had to scrap its plans. Nevertheless, the RNZYS’s ‘sesquicentennial’ year kicked off to
the perfect start when Emirates Team New Zealand returned the America’s Cup to its custom-built enclosure in pride of place among the trophy cabinets on the first floor, gazing down imperiously at the main meeting hall below. At a recent event in those clubrooms ETNZ CEO Grant Dalton observed that by the time the next defence rolls around in 2024
FRANCOIS VAN MALLEGHEM/DPPI
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