Contents April 2025 FEATURES
4 Friendly gauntlet GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
38 Apples and pears 100,000 US dollars for one hour’s racing or 475,000 dollars? If only it were that simple. ROB WEILAND
Big Mac The first Vendée Globe campaign for young future star Violette Dorange was spot-on. The critical early decisions were all correct, from picking the best of the affordable older Imocas – 2008/09 race winner Foncia – to ensuring that with it Dorange secured priceless support from previous skipper King Jean Le Cam, to making, it appears, all the right calls during the race itself in pursuit of her stated goal of finishing her first VG; soaking up the learning and pushing hard while ensuring one of the oldest boats in the fleet made it around intact – this was Foncia’s sixth racing circumnavigation! The fun yet informative media output which kept this young French sailor’s, by the finish, vast fan base engaged was superb. Serious racing commentary: when she needed to back off, or take a different option to exploit or avoid a weather system, and frank talk about the dread with which she confronted her first mast climb at sea. All blended with lots of fun stuff aimed at the tens of thousands of new non-sailing fans who flocked to her newsfeed as the race went on. Dorange avoids the worrying signals of a young sailor whose next milestone is ‘To Win’. She has a great mix of skills, experience and ambition, and star-appeal, that will ensure that she is on the startline in 2028 and that she will have accomplished great things in the interim. No wonder Sam Davies grabbed her for Initiatives Coeur while Macif were still thinking about it. The now 24-year-old skipper has covered a gazillion racing miles singlehanded and has yet to break a boat. And that is very cool indeed…
COVER: Thomas Deregnieaux INSET: Ian Roman
40 No surprises Barring disaster Mediterranean skipper YOANN RICHOMME was never not going to play a big part in his first Vendée Globe. JOCELYN BLERIOT
46 An indelible mark – Part I With only the help of Granny and a friendly but rather good boatbuilder DOUG PETERSON was launched onto the international yacht racing stage… Front dead-centre. JULIAN EVERITT
50 That final millimetre Aside from dreaming up clean new ways to make hydrogen AKIHIRO KANAI has been busy helping win Olympic medals in the 470 class
54 It took two But between them these two produced as much energy as a Boat Race eight. CLARE MCCOMB
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter DEB FISH
11 Editorial ANDREW HURST
14 Update America’s Cup simulators past, present and
future, winning ways to Nassau and remembering the very special as well as wonderfully influential BILL MONTI. TERRY HUTCHINSON, JACK GRIFFIN AND JOHN ‘JB’ BERTRAND
20 World news Lessons well learnt and a remarkable lap, eight Match Racing world titles and who knows what else is still to come, but one hungry young Kiwi has her eyes on your crown, a whole new take on offshore culinary pleasure. Plus a rapid set of season-closing regattas for our ice fiends. IAN WILLIAMS, ANTOINE MERMOD, MEGAN THOMSON, IVOR WILKINS, PATRICE CARPENTIER, DOBBS DAVIS, CARLOS PICH, MAGNUS WHEATLEY, BLUE ROBINSON
34 Rod Davis – Cool days afloat And all things told SailGP is looking pretty good
36 IRC – One or many? Handicap racing in one-designs… Huh? JASON SMITHWICK
45 RORC – Let the games begin JEREMY WILTON
58 TechStreet 62 Seahorse Regatta Calendar
68 Seahorsebuild table – Daughter of Lann Ael Here she finally is… flat-out planing from day one
98 And it’s Admiral’s Cup time again 99 Sailor of the Month
Boatbuilder par excellence Jason Carrington may get more than his fair share of top raceboat orders, but we’d add that he also gets more than a few orders that come with challenging briefs when it comes to final livery. The builder of Ben Ainslie’s AC75s has also in the last 18 months delivered first the Carkeek 45 Ino Noir (to match the owner’s custom painted Aston Martin) and more recently (left) the gloriously over- the-top Carkeek 54 Daguet 5
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