Vendée Globe

As the first boats approach the Equator, slowing through the Doldrums there is time to tell of a famous boat, the first winner of the Vendée Globe, Ecureuil d’Aquitaine, a 60-foot boat designed by the Bouvet/Petit team, which crossed the Doldrums well placed on three occasions with three different skippers: Titouan Lamazou in 1989, Bertrand De Broc in the 1992 Vendée Globe and Hervé Laurent in the 1996 race.

In 1989, the leading trio included Titouan Lamazou, Loïck Peyron (aged just thirty at the time!)and Philippe Poupon, who crossed the Doldrums almost without any delay. Behind them, the door closed on the rest of the fleet, beginning with the very unlucky Alain Gautier, who became becalmed.  

Titouan said he was pleased with his boat: “I'm starting to really appreciate her.  Last winter, I went through a tricky period.  I was beginning to wonder whether it wasn't foolish of me to have built her, as I really loved my old boat.”  His old boat for the BOC Challenge also designed by the Bouvet Petit team, was sold to Loïck Peyron and renamed Lada Poch.  

So, you can well understand the pressure that he must have felt. Loïck, second in the first Vendée Globe, was always right at the heels of Ecureuil d’Aquitaine… which went on to sail the next two races in fine style too.

In 1992, she wore the colours of Groupe LG skippered by Bertrand de Broc. She had a remarkable race at the front of the fleet…until 10th December.  Three weeks into the race, Alain Gautier at the helm of his powerful two-masted Bagages Superior overtook Bertrand. Both boats went through the Doldrums to the west of 25° W without any problems. Gautier would never be caught, but Bertrand was rather less fortunate. His boat proved herself to be a real ‘roller’ in the south and when she broached, the mainsail sheet hit him in the face and more precisely on the tongue, which he, famously, had to stitch it up himself.

It has become one of those tales of bravery that are legendary now in the Vendée Globe history.  Some time later the unfortunate Broc was recommended to head for land by the boat's designers because they felt that the new keel, which was much lighter than the old one, was threatening to fall off.  
The Breton hero's race was to end in New Zealand.

Four years later for the third edition of the Vendée Globe, Hervé Laurent was at the helm of the very same boat, now eight years old. It is often said that lucky people do not have any stories to tell. Hervé was one of those fortunate people, when he sailed on Groupe LG – Traitmat.  
The start of the race was exemplary. At the end of the first week, he was in third place, just ahead of Christophe Auguin's Géodis, which went on to win by a long way… and ahead of the new Groupe LG sailed by his stablemate, Gerry Roufs.
A week later, the faster boats went right by him as they picked up the trade winds in the southern hemisphere, but nevertheless he was still in fifth place.

Hervé Laurent would end up in third place in this highly exciting Vendée Globe, which will sadly be remembered the disappearance of  the Canadian skipper Roufs. Officially third that is, as in reality, the oldest boat in the fleet was the second home in Vendée.  
But following a request from Philippe Jeantot, Hervé Laurent waited for Marc Thiercelin to overtake him in the night and cross the finish before him.  This was to compensate for the time he lost searching for Gerry Roufs in the South Pacific, as the skipper of Crédit Immobilier was already by then assured of finishing second.
To make the result easier for the public to understand, it was easier for the boat ranked second to finish second.  Hervé Laurent was in complete accord with the request.  In fact, this boat almost set out on a  fourth voyage around the world in the hands of a New Zealander.  She was even in Les Sables d’Olonne in 2000 in her new blue livery, but could not leave Vendée due to a lack of funding.

The latest news concerning Titouan Lamazou's old boat is that she is in retirement taking it easy on the other side of the world.  Talking about veterans, we can add that the record for the number of times that a boat has taken part belongs to Philippe Poupon's former Fleury Michon. The Briand designed boat built by Jeanneau took par in all five of the Vendée Globe races, except for this one. Her story also deserves to be told.
 
Patrice Carpentier

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