Three IMOCA 60 monohulls carried out a joint training session this week off the southern coast of Brittany. Artemis with Sam Davies on board set sail from Port-le-Forêt alongside BT for a speed trial to Quiberon, where they met up with Marc Guillemot's Safran. The three monohulls took advantage of the strengthening north-easterly wind to sail further away from the the coast under spinnaker. With a wind reaching thirty knots, they furled the spinnaker to head up towards Ushant.
These were perfect conditions to test the various configurations and to get used to such sailing conditions. At dawn, the three boats headed back towards Penmarc'h in SW Brittany. Sam freely admits that the speed of Artemis tends to drop off when reaching and Jonny Malbon's former monohull is certainly much more demanding than her old Roxy.
 

The shore team of the BT IMOCA 60 are working hard on the preparation of the boat for the major race of the season - the Transat Jacques Vabre starting from Le Havre on the 8th of November. Pierre Emmanuel Hérissé, boat captain of BT commented: "BT has now been in the shed in Port La Foret (in Brittany) for 10 days. We are doing a complete check, but no major changes are being made. The final preparation of the keel, hull and rudders has been done. We checked, cleaned and replaced when necessary the deck hardware. 80% of the running rigging is being changed and we are replacing all the standing rigging. BT should be back in the water on the 7th of September and we will do the 10 degree test to ensure she conforms to IMOCA rules and can obtain her 2009/10 certificate."

Out of the five Vendée Globe skippers taking part in the 2009 Solitaire du Figaro, only Yann Eliès, who finished in a remarkable second place and Michel Desjoyeaux, who ended up fifth, were ranked in the final top ten in this exceptional edition of the race, which was won in Dieppe by the young Breton skipper Nicolas Lunven. A little further down the rankings, we could find Jérémie Beyou, who in spite of two leg wins finished 14th, with Armel Le Cléac'h 35th and Jonny Malbon 45th.

The Top Ten in the 2009 Solitaire
1 - Nicola Lunven
2 - Yann Eliès
3 - Frédéric Duthil
4 - Thierry Chabagny
5 - Michel Desjoyeaux
6 - Nicolas Troussel
7 - Gildas Morvan
8 - Nicolas Béranger
9 - Erwann Tabarly
10- Charles Caudrelier Benac
 

Two of the British skippers, who tok part in the last edition of the Vendée Globe will be joining forces aboard Aviva for the Artemis Challenge next Wednesday. Dee Caffari has invited Brian Thompson on her Open 60 Aviva for this race around the Isle of Wight. In all, there will ne nine in her crew setting out from Cowes, including the main members of the Aviva team, but also the adventurer Neil Laughton, who recently carried out the voyage from London to Tombouctou aboard an innovative flying car. A BBC regional news reporter will be joining them for this race, which Aviva will sail on behalf of Sail 4 Cancer, which tries to encourage sufferers to lead an active life by sailing. For Dee, there will also be the pleasure of doing battle once again with her friend from the Vendée Globe, Arnaud Boissières. Cali will in fact be alongside Vincent Riou aboard the new Akena Vérandas.

The Canadian sailor, Derek Hatfield has just been looking back at the past few months since he was forced to retire from the Vendée Globe. After carrying out repairs in Tasmania, he was unable to find the budget required to have his Spirit of Canada delivered back to Canada and was forced to leave his boat in Auckland. He then found the financial problems were such that he needed to hand his boat over to the lender. Derek takes up the story: "Since June, another Canadian has become the owner of the boat. I am not certain at this time what the plans are for the Open 60 or if I will be involved with it but I am very proud that the boat will continue to be of Canadian registry. At this point, I am in the Maritimes with the family and starting to think about future sailing projects. I have started to write a book about the past two round the world races (the Around Alone 2002 and the Vendee Globe 2008). The team and I are committed to continue with Spirit of Canada. We are beginning to work towards an exciting new campaign and I will be announcing the details of the next Spirit of Canada project in the next few months."

The Rolex Fastnet Race will be Alex Thomson's first major race aboard Hugo Boss since the Vendée Globe. The black monohull has undergone a long refit in Gosport and will be setting out in the Fastnet Race from Cowes on 9th August with a number of prestigious guests aboard, including the director and founder of Team Origin, Sir Keith Mills, as well as several experienced sailors, such as Rob Greenhalgh and the navigator Andrew Cape. Both recently gained a lot of experience on board Puma in the Volvo Ocean Race. The British champion skier, Graham Bell, known for his Olympic campaign and more recently as a competitor in the triathlon, as well as for his work as a TV sports presenter, will also be going aboard for this legendary race, which he believes is "one of the most adventurous things I've ever done."