2001 - a yachting odyssey pt1

James Boyd looks back on the first quarter of what was a top year on the water

The world's fastest catamaran - Grant Dalton's Club Med

The true beginning to the third millenium started with a bang. French catamaran sailor and visionary Bruno Peyron had spent many years working on his project named simply, The Race and 31 December saw the start gun of what Peyron was dubbing the 'ultimate yacht race' - non-stop around the world, fully crewed, in unlimited boats.

If the event was ground breaking, then so were the boats built for it. To contest the challenge a new generation of super-large multihulls - all of them catamarans - were built. By far the most radical was Pete Goss' Team Philips, but during December 2000 her crew abandoned her when she began to break up mid-Atlantic.

Three 110ft cats came from Gilles Ollier & Associates drawing board - Grant Dalton's Club Med, Innovation Explorer (sailed by Peyron's younger brother Loick) and the third, Team Adventure, for American Cam Lewis. In addition Steve Fossett's PlayStation was on the start line as were Tony Bullimore's Team Legato and Polpharma Warta, the Polish boat formerly known as Jet Services V and then Commodore Explorer.

Already these boats had proved themselves - Club Med setting a new 24 hour record of 580 miles. But at the time race pundits questioned whether or not the boats would make it round in one piece? Would any of them capsize? Ed Gorman was in Barcelona to watch the start. As the boats pulled out into the Atlantic Club Med took over the lead from Team Adventure.

At the same time the other major round the world race taking place was the Vendee Globe. The singlehanded non-stop around the world race had kicked off from Les Sables d'Olonne on the west coast of France on 3 November and as the new millenium rolled in the front runners were midway across the Pacific section of the Southern Ocean.

At this stage pre-race favourite Michel Desjoyeaux, a former Whitbread sailor and a regular Figaro champion had what appeared to be an unassailable lead - around 500 miles ahead of second placed Ellen MacArthur on Kingfisher and Roland Jourdain's Sill. A weather system ahead Desjoyeaux rounded Cape Hornon 11 January and as he made slow progress north up the Atlantic so Ellen was able to eat into his lead.

On 15 January Steve Fossett announced that PlayStation was pulling out of The Race. She had had to put into Gibraltar when her new sail wardrobe proved to be flawed. They had set off in hot pursuit of the leaders, but for Fossett a broke daggerboard was the last straw. PlayStation's chief helmsman Brian Thompson reported for madforsailing.

Four days later the battle between Team Adventure and Club Med came to an abupt end when the former suffered structural damage to the fairing on her mainbeam and was forced to divert to Cape Town to effect repairs. With this Club Med were able to take a breather and back off. Dalton later admitted the pace had been terrifying until then.

The stop in Cape Town cost Team Adventure four days and two crew jumped ship - leaving her with just 10. When she rejoined the race she was 2,000 miles astern of Club Med, while second placed Innovation Explorer was 600 miles behind the leader.

Back in the Vendee Globe, the South Atlantic had proven less lucky for race leader Michel Desjoyeaux. As the boats approached the Doldrums Ellen had closed right in on him and was harrying MichDes for the lead. On 29 January as the two boats were contending the northward passafge through the Doldrums Ellen did what at Cape Horn had seemed impossible - she took the lead. In fact it was a temporary blip - Desjoyeaux had sailed westwards to find a cleaner passage and Ellen had been unable to cover him. He was able to get clear first.

Equally as spectacular was the media machine which began to crank into action in the UK and France. In previous Vendee Globes the race had been signed and sealed soon after the boats had got into the Southern Ocean. Here there was a match race going on with the race all but complete. And what a race... between the high experienced Desjoyeaux and the 24 year old girl from Derbyshire. From here on the national press in the UK picked up on the story and Ellen was front page news until the finish.

As if this were not all, 31 January came a momentous announcement for British sailing. Millionaire Peter Harrison announced that he would be funding Britain's first bid to challenge for the America's Cup since 1986. Key players announced were Olympic medallist Ian Walker and former Kiwi AC skipper Dave Barnes. After much speculation it was later announced that RORC would be the challenging club.

On 2 February Club Med passed through Cook Strait, between New Zealand's north and south island and the natural half way point for the event. Unfortunately Dalts' cat had had a slow passage up the coast of South Island allowing Innovation Explorer to gain ground. Peyron's catamaran however was not in a good way having experienced daggerboard problems.

2 February sealed the final finishing order in the Vendee Globe when Kingfisher an underwater object demolishing one of her carbon fibre daggerboards. Ellen spent hours wrestling with the weather board that weighed more than she did. Remarkably Ellen still remained in contention until once again Desjoyeaux was able to get into favourable winds first and break away. He arrived back in Les Sables d'Olonne at 20.08.32 hours local time, on 10 February, setting a new singlehanded round the 93 days, three hours and 58 minutes to sail round the world. Ed Gorman reported from the finish, and got the words of the great man himself.