26/03/2012 #17

_ Vendée Globe:

retrospectiVe

_ Dominique: “i can’t

wait to Go sailinG!”

_ a busy technical

schedule!

newsletter

The seventh edition of the Vendée Globe starts on the 10 November 2012 in the Sables d’Olonne, France, and in the lead up to the race we plan to unveil some of the most exci-ting moments since the first edition in 1989.

Dominique Wavre raced the 2000, 2004 and 2008 editions of the Vendée Globe and will set a record when he crosses the start line in November for his fourth consecutive race.

Philippe Jeantot created the Vendée Globe in 1989 and it very quickly became known as a race of extremes and the ultimate offshore sailing challenge. The course and the concept say it all: a single-handed round the world race, without stops and without outside assistance. It is the longest sporting competition in the world and is without doubt one of the most challenging.

The last six editions, spanning a quarter of a cen-tury, encapsulate some of the most mythical and exciting moments of offshore sailing.

Frenchman, Titouan Lamazou, won the inaugural race in 1989-90, beating Loïck Peyron home after an epic 109-day race over 24,000 nautical miles. In addition to sailing, Lamazou had other talents: he was a writer and poet and had a successful career as an artist and reporter. This creative flair came into its own as he raced back up the Atlantic Ocean to the finish line – looking to save weight and completely obsessed with victory, he did the unthinkable and cast his spare sails and parts overboard to make the boat lighter. In retrospect he would have cringed as he was a committed humanist, but at the time winning was more im-portant to him than anything else!

Loïck Peyron finished 30 hours later in second place after an outstanding race, which included rescuing Philippe Poupon, video camera in hand. Jean Luc Van Den Heede won the admiration of his peers in the Southern Ocean and managed to put pressure on the fleet leaders with his unusual looking race yacht. Van Den Heede had chosen a long narrow hull shape rather than the more

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-Vendée Globe:- -one of the lonGest--and touGhest sportinG--competitions in the world-

common wide, flat hull that skidded through the water and surfed the waves like a windsurfer.

The first edition of the Vendée Globe was as much a race as an initiation and the event sailed straight into offshore racing mythology. Jean-François Coste was a great example of the pioneering spirit of this inaugural event; he crossed the finish line two months after the winner on board Cacharel, Eric Tabarly’s old Pen Duick III.

During the race, Coste regaled the sailing com-munity with tales from the high seas and on fi-nishing, concluded:

“There were thirteen of us on the morning of the start and not one really knew where we were headed. All we knew was that among us there would be a winner, a loser, those that would rank in between, the lucky and the unlucky. No one would voice the other alternative, but the sea did not take anyone this time, she was in a giving mood, so all was well. We had all done our best

to achieve our dream. Some succeeded, others will do better next time. We had a very good story with a happy ending.”

(Jean-François Coste, an extract from the pre-face of the book “Vendée Globe”, published by Denoël)

1989-1990 results1. Titouan Lamazou (FRA, Ecureuil d’Aquitaine II):

109 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes and 50 seconds2. Loïck Peyron (FRA, Lada Poch): 110 days, 1

hour, 18 minutes and 6 seconds3. Jean Luc Van Den Heede (FRA, 36.15 MET):

112 days, 1 hour and 14 minutes

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Mirabaud & Cie, banquiers privésLaurent Koutaïssoff29, boulevard Georges-Favon1204 GenèveT: +41 58 816 23 90M: +41 79 786 78 93

MaxComm CommunicationBernard SchopferT: +41 22 735 55 30M: +41 79 332 11 76bernard.schopfer@maxcomm.ch

Crédits photosThierry Martinez/Mirabaud

www.dominiquewavre.com

Mirabaud is still in the yard and the skipper and his technical team are working on getting it ready for the big race.

“We have approximately another month ashore before we can hoist the sails and test the yacht in its Vendée Globe configuration,” said Dominique, adding: “We are aiming for the 18 April.”

From that moment on, Dominique’s goal will be to sail short-handed as much as possible to perfect his boat handling. “Every time we go out we will have a list of objectives – this is something we are wor-king on at the moment. In general we will aim to be out for 12-hour stretches, a tide cycle, which in practice will mean five hours in one direction and five hours in the other. There will be a checklist of tests and the goal is to try to tick off as many as

we can based on the weather and the schedule of the day. For example, it is entirely possible that we will test a new reaching sail, specific boat han-dling techniques, the hydro generator and the bilge pump on the same day. And then the day after that, it will be something else and so on until the job list gets smaller. It is very unlikely that we will ever reach the end of the list, the most important thing at this stage is to define the priorities and deal with those first.”

For now Mirabaud remains in the yard while the team finishes the last few jobs before fitting the new spray dodger. “There are no major projects, this period in the yard is more about checking eve-rything and improving dozens of little things to optimise the boat as much as possible.”

Vendée Globe competitors are not going to set off around the world unprepared, and we are not talking about the obvious sailing and boat pre-parations… In parallel to their busy training and testing schedules, competitors are expected to attend a series of technical briefings put on by the event organising committee. These briefings will become more frequent as the start of the race approaches.

Here is an extract of the briefing schedule: • Monday 10 September: Search and rescue

briefing • Tuesday 11 September: Race management

presentation, presentation on monitoring drif-ting ice and how to set a course to avoid the ice

• Saturday 20 October: Welcome briefing• Sunday 21 October: Jury and Committee pre-

sentation and briefing on the start procedure• Monday 22 October: Safety briefing, ice trac-

king• Friday 9 November: Weather briefing

The following day, on the 10 November, the single-handed sailors will set off around the world, alone against the elements for at least three months.

Dominique: “i can’t wait to Go sailinG!”

a busy technical schedule!