Vendée Globe

While the Route du Rhum remains a sporting attraction and offers an adventurous journey towards an exotic paradise, this year for many of the solo yachtsmen they surely had in the back of their mind a more global objective and were thinking of their preparations for the next Vendée Globe. A sixty-foot monohull is, like any racing prototype, constantly evolving and there are not many transatlantic runs, which allow skippers to check, measure and compare the thousand and one pieces of equipment on board their machines.

This eighth Route du Rhum saw the first five competitors beat the record time set in 2002 by Ellen MacArthur. You can of course always add a word of caution to these figures by factoring in the weather conditions, in which the times were set. However, there is no escaping the fact that looking at the astounding numbers achieved by the leaders in four days of racing that the yachts designed for the last Vendée Globe are entering maturity, while the latest boats popping out of the imagination and inventiveness of architects and racers are a precursor of some fine tomorrows as we approach 2008.



The triumph of Lombard designs

Roland Jourdain and Jean Le Cam pushed back the bounds of friendship and their ongoing complicity to offer a great show full of suspense at the finishing line of this Route du Rhum. Their success is of course down to Sill et Véolia and VM Matériaux, two sisterships, drawn up by the designer Marc Lombard. VM Matériaux is in fact none other the Bonduelle that Jean Le Cam took to second place in the 2004-05 Vendée Globe. Jean has since changed partners, but was able to continue with the fine tuning of his boat, adding in secrecy here and there his personal touch concerning the rigging and automatic pilots. « Bilou » was not to be left behind, as the speeds showed at the end of the race in the trade winds. The remarkable comeback achieved by Le Cam in the final days of the race say a lot about the performance and behaviour of his boat reaching and in fresh winds. Jean clearly had a few tricks up his sleeve to slide along safely with the wind astern and with the pilot…



Virbac Paprec or power upwind

A lot was expected from Jean-Pierre Dick and his Farr design, which came sixth in the last Vendée Globe, and proved herself this time. Virbac Paprec is still just as efficient upwind in a breeze. He gave in under the encouragement of Le Cam to catch up his mate Bilou at any cost in the Saintes channel and the boat seemed a little bit slower when given her freedom. The boat is completely ready and any sign of fragility appears to have been eliminated.



A comparison with the new Farr designs put off until later

If we want to make comparisons with the latest boats , we can only think of the fine performance achieved by Dominique Wavre’s new Temenos. The Owen Clarke design has attracted a lot of praise and will be closely watched by all those competing in the class. For her first transatlantic race, the boat wide and light, set a remarkable time averaging more than 11 knots and already seems well adjusted. With the adjustments that lie ahead, it would seem that the Swiss sailor Wavre will be timing it just right for the start in two years time in Les Sables d’Olonne. Two other boats attracted a lot of interest. A lot has been said about the qualities of Jeremie Beyou’s Delta Dore and Vincent Riou’s PRB. An awful personal problem for the first and the dismasting of the second means disappointingly it is not possible to analyse the performance of these new Farr designs, and we missed out on the fabulous duel we had been dreaming of between these two Lombard designs.



Armel’s performance

Finally let us not forget Armel Le Cléac’h’s wonderful performance aboard Sébastien Josse’s old VMI renamed Brit’Air. After a difficult stretch leaving the English Channel , Armel took a gamble by heading off west at the Azores. This option allowed him to get back into the race, with some hard physical effort, and grab fourth place ahead of the brand new Temenos. The Finot Conq design from 1998 still has lot to offer, and Armel, who will be getting a new boat in 2008, suiting his great talent, got the most out of her.

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