Vendée Globe

Apart from Michel Desjoyeaux and Emmanuel Le Borgne’s splendid victory, which confirms that Foncia is a racing machine to watch and will be one of the favourites in the Vendée Globe, what happened during the race and the final rankings in Bahia for the Transat Jacques Vabre offers a sign that we can look forward to a great race.

First of all, there appears to be a very balanced fleet for the round the world race. A special mention goes to Marc Guillemot’s Safran, which was really impressive with her lightweight construction, offering speed and the visionary tactics of her skipper, Marc Guillemot. This led the third placed racer, Bernard Stamm to say: «It’s re-assuring to see we are up there in the running. Sailing quickly is easy, but sailing quicker than quickly, is a bit tough. Apparently, Safran can sail quickly without any problem and all the time, which is really annoying. We’re going to have to do a lot of work on the boat this winter.»
The quotation tells us a lot, as do the rankings: we do not just have to keep an eye on the boats from the latest generation – as the third and fourth place show us with Bernard Stamm on the former Virbac-Paprec and Jean Le Cam on his VM Matériaux. The difference in speed between the favourites for the Vendée Globe are tiny: the disappointing performance of Gitana Eighty and Ecover can be put down more to bad choices in terms of weather options rather than any weakness as far as the machines are concerned.
The fact that there were seven leaders in the Transat Jacques Vabre over 17 days confirms this, even if the superb final duel between Foncia and Safran kept the public holding their breath. Kito de Pavant, with what is more or less the sistership of Safran, can thus be reassured. While it is true there are two Farr designs on the podium (1st and 3rd), the work of the designers, Verdier, Lauriot-Prévost and Van Peteghem, who were behind Safran has been acknowledged for what it is really worth. Sailing single-handed for the return journey, the Transat B to B, which is a qualifier for the Vendée Globe, should confirm just how close these boats are to one another. Good news then, which would lead us to wish we were a year forward in time to be able to see what was happening in the Vendée Globe 2008/2009. It looks like being the most incredible race we have ever seen, firstly with the largest number of entrants, then with the quality of the sailors and boats that will be lining up.

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