GILLES MORELLE
JUERG KAUFMANN
Update
Payback: Iain Percy and Anders Ekström (above) cross the finish line inches in front of Melleby/Revkin and Rohart/Ponsot to win the 2019 Star Sailors League Finals in Nassau – each pump and roll down the last run put a different boat in front. For Percy it was some small payback for the gold medal he and best friend Bart Simpson lost in similar circumstances at London 2012 (right) when Robert Scheidt squeezed past in the final length to deprive Percy of his third gold (and Bart’s second) which went to Sweden’s Freddy Lööf
SH: The main stages that led you to this victory? AB: My two Mini Transat campaigns were very different. The first was my discovery of this new world, while the thing that worked well with this second Transat was a main sponsor who supplied the necessary financial strength: a nice boat plus the opportunity to later be based in Lorient where I could train with Tanguy Leglatin’s squad. Tanguy trains many solo sailors in several classes: Mini 6.50, Figaro, Class40 and Imoca. If you are not French you have to make a few more sacrifices,
like studying a new language! But the team do so well because Lorient is in France, the city has invested heavily in sailing, creating this incredible area with all the necessary services plus the presence of so many navigators which allows an exchange of experiences. In January 2018 I bought the Pogo 3, a Verdier design, on which
I won nine of the races, including this one, out of 12 I took part in. When I bought it it was basically the only possible choice, but then the scow Mini Series came out and it was depressing – they really went much faster reaching. In the end, however, the reliability of the Pogo prevailed so I could always push to my personal limit. SH: Was it more stressful being favourite? AB: It was stressful, but if you are the favourite there is a reason and it is always better to be favoured than not! However, during the final preparation phase I did have some difficult moments man- aging this pressure, but my girlfriend Vittoria helped me by becoming a sort of second coach – it’s a great pleasure for me to recognise her fundamental part in my success. SH: The key moment of this victory? AB: Actually there were four, three of them in the first stage, all linked to the interpretation of the weather. On the opening leg there were big fronts in the Bay of Biscay… to begin with I got everything right and built a nice lead, but then I lost everything off Portugal with a mistake and had to start again from scratch. Then just before Las Palmas there was a wall of calm, but I made the right choice by positioning myself west… where later the wind came from. The second leg was more of a race of speed and mental tough-
ness, because you don’t know where your opponents are. The start was important, in 25-30kt I went out into the ocean leading the fleet and sailing fewer miles because I manoeuvred much more, gybing many times and staying closer to the island. It was a winning choice to manoeuvre a lot instead of pointing the boat and letting it go. I had one big broach early on that reminded me to avoid further risks; it cost me a little time but did not really affect performance despite having bent the bowsprit joint. One of the secrets of the victory was to fully believe in the weather
plan I made on land with the coach before the second stage. Of all the athletes he worked with I was the one who believed most in his option. On the sea we have the weather once a day, you have to follow the preset strategy even if sometimes it is not the right choice (hence my mistake off Portugal). In the end I was the one
18 SEAHORSE
who did the best job of staying close to the high pressure without stopping and doing fewer miles than those who went further south – while in the north they got sucked into the high, staying stationary for more than 10 hours. Knowing how to translate the weather infor- mation into a coherent course strategy, which is the most difficult part, is something that with more experience suits me very well. SH: And now a Class40 programme… AB: That would be the plan, but we have to meet the sponsors soon… With the Class40 I have already done a Défi Atlantique race from the Caribbean to the Azores and actually it has many similarities to the Mini 6.50. But racing with a used boat does not allow you to excel, so I
decided to build a new boat and have invested in specific aspects of the design phase to move forward. It’s very stimulating. I am a nautical engineer so I can translate the sensations I have in the water into numbers and shapes. And sailing at this level is still all about sensations – the data analysis is not yet as important as in the America’s Cup. I will entrust the project to Gianluca Guelfi, who has the same university education as me, is a Class40 specialist and works in France where we met… now we would like to make a special ‘Made in Italy’ boat. Mix things up a little, I hope! Giuliano Luzzatto
HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING – Don McIntyre Will the Ocean Globe become the largest crewed round-the-world race – a fully crewed retro race in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race? To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original event, the first Ocean Globe will start in Europe in September 2023 and will be a 27,000nm four-leg race following traditional clipper routes around the globe. The race was initially planned with three Retro classes (Adventure,
Sayula, Flyer), in three different-sized ranges of Swans, but now that has changed. At the Yacht Racing Forum in Bilbao the addition of a ‘Classic Challenge’ was announced by race chairman Don McIn- tyre. The new class will allow in eight further entries – former Whit- bread Maxis over 71ft and Whitbread 60s from 1993 to 1997. With 16 confirmed entries in five months, the Retro classes are
already more than half-full. The addition of the Classic Challenge and two discretionary invitations will increase available entries to 34, making this one of the biggest crewed round-the-world races of the past 29 years. The Retros and Classics will share host and stopover ports as well as starting dates. However, the Classic fleet will sail a longer course where crews will compete for the Big Red Trophy named after Sir Peter Blake’s Steinlager II. ‘The thing that is surprising me is the quality of the entrants,
plus their backstories are so strong,’ said McIntyre in Bilbao. ‘We are not only going to have a big fleet, 25-30 or more boats, but there are fascinating stories, amazing entrants, classic boats, the
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