Transat Jacques Vabre - multihull form guide

James Boyd looks at what lies in store for the 60ft trimarans

The Transat Jacques Vabre two handed transatlantic race kicks off this weekend from Le Havre in northern France. The monohulls are due to start on Saturday followed by the multihulls on the Sunday, although the forecast particularly for the Sunday is looking dismal and there is every chance of a postponement (see page 2).

It will be the second time the Transat Jacques is held on this course - from Le Havre to Salvador da Bahia in Brazil (the first four races went to Cartagena in Columbia) with the monohulls taking a direct course and the multihulls having to round Ascension Island in the middle of the south Atlantic. The monohull course is 4,340 miles long while it is 5,300 for the multihulls.

It is the sixth time this biennial race is being held and 10 years down the track, the race is turning into one of the classic French shorthanded transoceanic events, attracting massive crowds down to the docks here at the Basin Paul Vatine (named after the popular trimaran skipper lost overboard in the 1999 race) to see the spectacular fleet.

At present with majors events such as the Route du Rhum and the Vendee Globe 'open class' racing, be it in monohulls or multihulls, is going through a highly buoyant period in France and among the 39 competing yachts taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre are 14 60ft trimarans and 17 Open 60s. Both are highly competitive fleets with all but two of the tris in with a chance of winning and around eight of the Open 60s.

Today we will be looking at the form in the 60ft trimaran class while we will follow this tomorrow with our look at the Open 60s.

60ft trimarans

Odds	Boat	Crew	Nat	Designer	Comments
to win	60ft tris
7:1	Groupama	Franck Cammas & Franck Proffit	Fr	VPLP 1998	Won most regattas this year
8:1	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux & Hervé Jan	Fr	VPLP 2002	Much developed this season, won Route du Rhum
9:1	Belgacom	Jean-Luc Nélias & Loick Peyron	B & Fr	VPLP 2001	Swan song for Belgacom - Nelias/Peyron strong team
10:1	Sodebo	Thomas Coville & Jacques Vincent	Fr	VPLP 2002	Was leading Route du Rhum, fast boat reaching
10:1	Banque Covefi	Stève Ravussin & Yvan Ravussin	CH	VPLP 1997	Young crew, boat (ex-Fujicolor) is old but has new floats and mast
13:1	Sergio Tacchini	Karine Fauconnier & Damian Foxall	Fr & Irl	Irens 2001	Much improved performance this season
14:1	Bonduelle	Jean Le Cam & Kito de Pavant	Fr	VPLP 2000	Fast but inconsistent performer
15:1	Foncia	Alain Gautier & Ellen MacArthur	Fr & UK	VPLP 2002	Potential winner but prone to breakage
17:1	Banque Populaire	Lalou Roucayrol & Pascal Bidégorry	Fr	Lombard 2001	Potential winner but skipper prone to fliers and boat to breaking
18:1	Sopra Group	Philippe Monnet & Laurent Bourgnon	Fr & CH	Lombard 2002	Potentially fast but never proved itself
20:1	Bayer CropScience	Fred Le Peutrec & Julien Cressant	Fr	Irens 2002	Potentially fast but never proved itself
22:1	Biscuits La Trinitaine	Marc Guillemot & Yann Guichard	Fr	Irens 1998	Older boat but does well offshore
40:1	Gitana	Lionel Lemonchois & Marc Guessard	Fr	Gitana 2002	So far has always been a dog. Boat now much lighter
50:1	TIM	Giovanni Soldini & Vittorio Malingri	Ita	VPLP 2001	Although a sistership to Bonduelle she has never been on the pace

Last year's Route du Rhum was a disaster for the 60ft trimaran fleet. Of the 18 starters there were only three finishers and only one boat completed the course without stopping.

Following the spate of new builds over the past couple of years for the Route du Rhum there are no new 60ft trimarans this year. However all the boats have undergone varying degrees of development and all have been beefed up following last November's carnage.

Most notably the structure of particularly the newer tris has been strengthened with stringers or frames added in the floats while there has been similar reinforcement in the beam fairings that were demolished on many boats. Several boats have needed new masts and these have been 'dumbed down' and are no longer being built from high modulus carbon fibre.

The result of this development, is we hope a fleet that will be more competitive and less prone to breakage, disaster and the resultant bad press (hence the strong likelihood of a 24-48 hour postponement on Sunday).

Favourite for line honours are unquestionably the Francks Cammas and Proffit on board Cammas' Groupama. Cammas won the race two years ago and has been the most successful on the trimaran circuit this year winning the Challenge Mondial Assistance as well as all the ORMA class' Grand Prix with the exception of Cagliari, where she came second to Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini. His crew Franck Proffit is one of the most capped trimaran sailors in France and was co-skipper of Club Med with Grant Dalton during The Race. Although the boat is one of the older in the fleet, built back in 1997, so many modifications have been made to the boat that little of the original boat exists - most recently she has been fitted with new carbon foils with winglets and has an enlarged Solent jib.

Ironically Cammas is the only skipper at present to have a new 60ft trimaran in build (read more about this on the site next week).

It is high time that Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux won a race in style on board his Geant. The boat was first tri home in last year's carnage ridden Route du Rhum but during this race skipper Michel Desjoyeaux was forced to make two pitstops to make repairs. Launched last year this boat is one of the latest generation designs by Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prevost and also one of the most technical in the fleet. New developments for this year include a new rudder on the main hull - complete with a new trimmable T-foil arrangement (much the same as the latest Morrison International 14s) to alter fore and aft trim of the boat. Desjoyeaux is sailing with the much capped round the worlder Herve Jan, who will be stepping off after the race to rejoin Tracy Edwards' Qatar 2006 crew.

Both Groupama and Geant are known to have good upwind potential which will be required for the first couple of days of this race as well as heading down to Ascension Island.

Belgacom is another strong contender for line honours. Aside from being one of the most polished campaigns the boat is being sailed by two of the most experienced trimarans sailors ever - Jean-Luc Nelias and former Fujicolor skipper Loick Peyron, probably the successful tri sailor ever in this fleet. Ironically in previous TJVs it has been Nelias who has crewed for Peyron. The boat has undergone little modification other than some repairs recently when she sustained wave damage to one of her floats, along similar lines (but not as extreme) to that experienced by Fujifilm and Sergio Tacchini in the Route du Rhum last year.



It is likely that Peyron and Nelias will be pushing harder than normal. Their sponsor Belgacom have pulled the plug on their sponsorship following the TJV and the boat is currently up for sale.

Despite leading the Route du Rhum until retiring with damaged beam fairings, Thomas Coville's Sodebo has all the potential but is another that has failed to make the impression she should results-wise. With a beam of 18.6m (so slightly wider than she is long) Sodebo is one of the most potent reaching machines in the fleet. Sailing with Coville is round the world sailor Jacques Vincent.

The story is similar for Alain Gautier and Ellen MacArthur on Foncia. The season of this boat so far has been a disaster with a capsize in the Challenge Mondial Assistance. The boat was subsequently out of commission until the Fecamps Grand Prix when the tip of her brand new mast broke. Gautier and MacArthur came close to winning the TJV two years ago until the hydraulic ram on one their shrouds broke on the final night at sea. This was in the old Foncia. The new boat has the potential to be quick - if she holds together.



Alain Gautier's old Foncia has been rechristened Banque Covefi and is sailed by Swiss sailor Steve Ravussin and his elder brother Yvan. Ravussin is very much out of the same mould as his Swiss compatriots, the Bourgnon brothers in his ballsey, fearless approach to trimaran sailing. In the Route du Rhum last year Ravussin looked set to be the surefire winner, holding a 700 mile lead over the second placed boat - until his trimaran capsized 700 miles from the finish line.

Despite the boat being relatively old she underwent major modifications over the winter with the addition of two new floats, taken from the moulds of Belgacom and has new curved foils.

Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini is likely to be the top Irens-designed boat. She was all but destroyed in last year's Route du Rhum when he starboard float broke in two causing her to be dismasted. The boat has been completely rebuilt and the team have been working hard on developing her performance. Notably she is the only boat so far this year to have beaten Groupama - when she won the Cagliari Grand Prix.

Bonduelle has constantly shown the potential to go fast and skipper Jean le Cam aside from being the most capped Figaro and Formula 40 winner is also highly experienced sailing offshore in trimarans. He is racing with last year's Solitaire du Figaro winner Kito de Pavant. Following the Route du Rhum she has been fitted with a new forward beam taken from Sodebo's moulds.

Banque Populaire, our favourite among the Marc Lombard designs is another boat with all the potential to win. This year she came second in the Challenge Mondial Assistance and was third in the Route du Rhum last year after taking a circuitous route to the north of the Azores high. She was however the only boat to finish without stopping. Skipper Lalou Roucayrol is racing with former Solitaire du Figaro winner Pascal Bidegorry.

The same can be said of Philippe Monnet's Sopra Group, another Lombard design. Monnet has had some major personal issues this year having been imprisoned for drink driving (but being released to do trimaran grand prix, of course) and is sailing with the great two time Route du Rhum winner Laurent Bourgnon.

The Irens design Bayer CropScience also has the potential to win. Again her skipper former Tornado Olympian Fred le Peutrec has had personal problems, this time with health problems - he has had a heart condition - which has meant he has not spent as much time on board this season as he would have liked. Bayer was the only one of the three new generation Irens design not to suffer severe damage in last year's Route du Rhum.

La Trinitaine Chauss'Europ is an older generation Irens design and has proved herself to be good offshore - she came second in last year's Route du Rhum. Veteran skipper Marc Guillemot is racing with Yann Guichard, who will be representing France in the Tornado at the Athens Olympic.

Gitana has all the creditials to be a fast boat. She was designed by a team including Gilles Ollier, Sebastien Schmidt and Duncan MacLean and was built by Ollier's Chantier Multiplast in France, builder of France's America's Cup boats as well as the Ollier-designed G-class giant cats. Gitana is very different compared to the other tri designs with more rocker in the floats, an X-beam configuration and a smaller wingmast. But rumour has it that she is more a tonne overweight. Hence the team led by skipper Lionel Lemonchois have in recent months been putting the boat on a severe diet.

Giovanni Soldini's TIM is a sistership to Bonduelle. The boat has had a foil upgrade, but never competes on the ORMA circuit and her past form indicates that she is unlikely to be a contender. Soldini is sailing with Italian Vendee Globe competitor Vittorio Malingri.

More photos from Le Havre on page 3 onwards