Press Release No. 4
Friday 4th November, 2005
www.jacques-vabre.com
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE PREVIEW: IMOCA MONOHULL FLEET
Tomorrow at 1500hrs French time, 24hrs ahead of the multihull fleet, 18 Open 50 & 60 monohulls will set off from Le Havre in the 7th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre under the dramatic cliffs of Cap de la Hève. There are 12 contenders in the Open 60 class, with some formidable partnerships, including Anglo-French pairs, Ellen MacArthur and Roland Jourdain (Sill et Veolia), Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre (Ecover), and some other powerful combinations, such as Jean Le Cam & Kito de Pavant (Bonduelle), Brian Thompson and Will Oxley (Skandia), Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron (Virbac-Paprec). Four females form part of this group, and the third anglo-french alliance happens to be the one all female team: Anne Liardet and Miranda Merron (Roxy).
This class boasts an impressive number of sailing stars from previous editions of the Transat Jacques Vabre, from the Vendée Globe, Around Alone and the Figaro circuit. The cream of the crop are all here, including past Open 60 Class winners, such as Jean-Pierre Dick from 2003, and Roland Jourdain (2001), and also past winners in other classes, including Loick Peyron (1999 Open 60 multihull) and Miranda Merron (1999 Open 50 monohull). Bernard Stamm, winner of Around Alone 2002/3 is back in action on board Cheminées-Poujoulat with Jules Verne winner and Figaro skipper, Yann Elies.
So it is almost impossible to select favourites amongst such a plateau of exceptionally talented skippers. The only Brazilian team in the race, Walter Antunes & Raphael Coldefy on board Galileo, has the only brand new Open 60, however do not rate themselves amongst the favourites with no comparable racing experience. Walter is sure of four boats to take the top spots: “I think Sill et Veolia, Bonduelle, Ecover and Virbac-Paprec are the real favourites. With a powerful, new boat, we will aim for the next place in fifth, that would be a fantastic result for us.”
Legendary rivals in the Vendée Globe 2000/1, Roland Jourdain and Ellen MacArthur, are coming together for the Transat Jacques Vabre 2005. This is the first time Ellen will have raced on a monohull since she won the Route Du Rhum in 2002. “I think that the field is pretty open and a lot of teams could win this race. The first few days are tactically very tough so that will undoubtedly shake out the fleet, which will affect the rankings at the other end. I’m really going to enjoy the sailing, we get along well and complement each other in different ways.”
Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre, both solo giants in the IMOCA monohull fleet, have naturally found their partnership to be one of synchronicity and similarity, and with a proven boat, they will undoubtedly dominate. “Dominique and I have the same methods and mentality towards our preparation and sailing, which is where we might have an edge over other pairings. All our training has been in strong conditions, which has gone very smoothly, so Ecover is very reliable and at ease in the kind of heavy weather we’ll see in the first 24 hours of the race, as that will sort the fleet out pretty quickly.”
Golding’s co-skipper from 2003, Brian Thompson, has teamed up with expert navigator, Australian Will Oxley, and although they only began sailing together on Skandia for their qualifier, they are a well oiled team, after spending 27,000 miles in each other’s company racing at sea to win the Oryx Quest race. Oxley explains: “For us, the race will come down to key tactical decisions at points in the course, and we’ve been thinking about these a lot already. Because Brian and I have a similar style of sailing, same temperament, and shared so much together already, we understand each other, we’ll say what we mean and minimize the downtime spent processing information.”
Just because both Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron have been stressing that there’s no great pressure being put upon the result here, you know that really means that no less than a podium finish will suffice, and preferably no less than victory to repeat his performance from 2003. Dick comments: “There are four new generation boats, Ecover, Sill & Veolia, Bonduelle and us. There are other teams to watch out for, like Anne &Miranda on Roxy, but for us Jean Le Cam and Kito de Pavant will no doubt be the team to beat.”
Indeed, the pairing on Bonduelle is extremely dangerous. Le Cam, 2nd in the Vendée Globe 2004/5 and Figaro ‘King’, and his co-pilot De Pavant, another Figaro winner, will be a real tour de force on the course. “We hope that the modifications we’ve made to the boat will bring rewards, it all looks good so far.” Another ‘Figarist’, Eric Drouglazet, is the other half on board Pro-Form with veteran solo circumnavigator, Marc Thiercelin. The other truly dangerous talent is of course Bernard Stamm with Yann Elies on Cheminées Poujoulat. “We’re in this to win, of course!” smiles Bernard.
The two-time Vendée Globe winning boat is in the feminine hands of Vendée finisher Anne Liardet and Miranda Merron, re-baptised ROXY. Anne compliments Miranda: “Our common denominator is the wish to be, and pleasure from being, on the water. Not only do I have confidence in Miranda and her abilities, but what I appreciate even more is her ever-present smile, how happy she is to be there.”
Two other ex-Vendée skippers, Joé Seeten & Hervé Laurent, have respectively teamed up with an Italian alpinist Cecilia Carreri on Mare Verticale, and Laurent Massot on UUDS. Finally, two young talented ‘rookies’, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty and Alexandre Toulorge, are racing on Région Basse Normandie Maisonneuve.
In 2003, Virbac arrived first in Bahia after 16 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes, at an average speed of nearly 11 knots. For 2005, one thing is clear, that the pace will be hot right off the blocks and all the way to Brazil. If the weather forecast for the start holds, the first 24 hours of heavy adverse weather will add to an already intense competition.
International Media Relations:
Mary Ambler
Email: mary.ambler@xalt.co.uk
Mob: +44 (0)7887 643 583
Race web site: www.jacques-vabre.com – click on the Union Jack flag to go to the English version
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