A young Erwan Tabarly (nephew of) trains out of the Pôle Finistère offshore centre in Port la Forêt. Tabarly has gone on to a successful professional offshore racing career including winning the Imoca class in the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre as co-skipper on Banque Populaire VIII with Vendée Globe winner Armel Le Cléac’h. If an offshore event joins the 2024 Olympic roster then Pôle Finistère will be busy…
building 50 Figaro 3s late last year, we have already finished eight and will be delivering them all at the same time this December. But we have already agreed with the Figaro class that we can prepare boats for a mid-year demonstration event. ‘A first Double Handed Offshore show-
also its biggest advantage, that while it is very different the fact is that it’s closer to what a lot of people in the world actually do in terms of their own personal sailing. ‘Life onboard a double-handed boat
and the continuous coverage would be fascinating and let’s not overlook the fact that of course the long duration has echoes of the original marathon culture of the Olympic Games.’ Stan’s deputy chairman on the offshore
committee is Matt Allen, president of Yachting Australia and winner of the 2017 Sydney Hobart Race on his TP52 Ichi Ban: ‘Our concept would offer broader appeal for the Olympic Games. This would be the only Olympic event that would run through the night; consequently it allows an audience in any time zone around the world to tap into something that is live at any time of the day or night. That is not just a novel feature for an Olympic sailing event, it is a completely new feature for the modern Olympic Games. ‘Back within the existing sailing culture,
recently the Olympics have focused on dinghies, multihulls and skiffs and this event would engage with offshore sailors. I think on top of that you add the gaming or e-sailing community and therefore you will attract people, as has happened with the Volvo Ocean Race, “e-racing” the event. That obviously overlaps with both the dinghy and the offshore community and adds to the catchment. ‘In my own discussions with the IOC
they have been incredibly enthusiastic about the chance of getting this discipline introduced for Paris 2024. It is essential to have the host country supportive and, in the case of 2024, it is no surprise that the French federation, the FFV, have already thrown their weight behind this. ‘As most people know, we had tried to
get a demonstration event in place for Tokyo 2020 but in the end that was not to be. The Japanese sailing federation was very supportive but there was a strong push from the main organisers of the Tokyo Games to avoid over-complicating what is already an enormous task. ‘So while the idea of an offshore test event for Tokyo faded away, I think if you
36 SEAHORSE
now bring it to the table as a brand new Paris 2024 medal event supported by World Sailing, the IOC and the FFV it will succeed. ‘Of course, there is also the pressure
on athlete numbers at the Olympics to account for. One of the ways of doing this would be to utilise your existing pool of athletes, in which case the male/female crew mix maintains the gender balance; if we are getting a strict one-design boat that can be sailed by two people I think that is the perfect format all round. The bigger question is can we stretch sailing’s medal cap from 10 to 11? ‘For reasons of fairness the boat chosen
needs to be in plentiful supply two or three years before the Olympics – at least in Europe initially. You might not have any in Cape Town or Sydney, but I don’t see that as a major issue. Because we are using the same pool of Olympic athletes for the new medal, then any sailor who qualifies for the Olympics in another class will need to have campaigned extensively in Europe and sailing the boat there will not be an expensive exercise.’ So again, what boat? The Figaro one-
design class has been the popular first step on the ladder for the bulk of French solo offshore racers (along with the Mini 6.50 class), many of whom have then moved up to the Imoca 60 fleet. Nine out of the past 10 Vendée Globe winners have sailed in the Figaro class. The breakthrough into foils in the
Imoca 60s led to major performance gains in the last Vendée Globe; now the latest Figaro one-design, the Figaro 3 designed by VPLP, while still built in a conventional foam/polyester sandwich, has its own take on foils and is already demonstrating its speed advantage over its predecessor. The Figaro 3 will replace the Figaro 2 when the Solitaire, the jewel of the Figaro circuit, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019. However, Bénéteau are actively looking
beyond the French market with its latest Figaro racer which was designed to help meet the fast-growing worldwide interest in shorthanded offshore racing. Bénéteau general manager Gianguido Girotti (known widely as G3): ‘We began
case event for 2018 is now being dis- cussed, with a minimum five boats and run with the support of the French Sailing Fed- eration. It could be a 350nm race from Marseille during or after the Sailing World Cup event there in June 2018 with four of the top Olympic-ranked sailing nations invited to compete with the French team.’ But back to the boat, as G3 continues:
‘Our aim in building the Figaro 1, 2 and now 3 has always been 50 sailors starting and finishing. Safety and reliability have been and will always be critical elements because the image of our brand is built on that. ‘During the long Figaro 3 development
all of the critical parts of the boat have been tested to destruction. Before the first pro- duction boat is delivered the Figaro 3 proto- type will have sailed the equivalent of 10 times around the world! We are also antici- pating even tighter one-design specifications than with the Figaro 2 – particularly focus- ing on weight checks and foil geometries. That is why it took us so much time to vali- date the prototype as it must offer precise reference points for the production boat. ‘The new boat, including electronics,
sails and safety equipment, will sell at ⇔210,000-220,000. By mid-2019 we will have at least 80 to 90 boats on the water. ‘World Sailing are preparing their own
specification for candidate designs if the move to include an offshore event in 2024 goes ahead. The FFV, in taking the lead in organising a demonstration event this year, are simply saying that we want to be of help because we have the experience and we have the organisation so perhaps we can show you how to do it. ‘But World Sailing will be responsible
for settling on the class rules for a potential One Design Double Handed Offshore Class. We do not know if the Figaro 3 will fit within those rules, but if it does and if we can play a part then we are ready.’ So will there be a mixed-crewed, two-
handed offshore event at Paris 2024? It makes sense, but then sadly sense is not always what we get from our lords and masters. It will be a complex event to organise and a considerable boost for sail- ing worldwide, but with a well-resourced, experienced and very interested one-design boatbuilder to hand, if anyone can do it, it will be France. And how fitting is that… Rob Kothe
q
BENOIT STICHELBAUT
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