Transat 60ft trimaran form guide

We look at the line-up for what could become the hottest race in town

Odd to win	Boat	Skipper	Nat	Age	Designer	Launched	Past names
5	Groupama	Cammas Frank	Fr	32	MVP/VLP	Jul-98
7	Geant	Desjoyeaux Michel	Fr	38	MVP/VLP	Jun-02
8	Banque Covefi	Ravussin Steve	Swi	35	MVP/VLP	Aug-97	ex Foncia
8.5	Sergio Tacchini	Fauconnier Karine	Fr	32	Irens	Aug-01
9	Sodebo	Thomas Coville	Fr	36	MVP/VLP	Jul-02
10	Foncia	Gautier Alain	Fr	42	MVP/VLP	Apr-02
11	Banque Populaire	Roucayrol Lalou	Fr	39	Lombard	Mar-01
12	Gitana XI	Le Peutrec Fred	Fr	44	MVP/VLP	Aug-01	ex Belgacom
20	Sopra Group	Monnet Philippe	Fr	45	Lombard	Apr-02
25	Gitana X	Guillemot Marc	Fr	44	Gitana Design Team	Jun-02
30	TIM	Soldini Giovanni	It	38	MVP/VLP	May-01	ex Fila
35	Médiatis Région Aquitaine	Parlier Yves	Fr	43	Parlier Design Group	Feb-04

If the field is close for the top ten Open 60 monohulls, it is closer still between the twelve ORMA 60s, any of which could have its day in the variable wind and sea conditions expected in The Transat.

This is certainly the most competitive fleet of high speed ocean racing machines ever assembled. In the Europe 1 New Man STAR four years ago we were excited by the prospect of seven 60ft trimarans taking part. This year there are eleven 60ft trimarans and Yves Parlier's radical new catmaran Médiatis Région Aquitaine.

Yesterday our odds for the Open 60 division saw the odds range from Mike Golding's Ecover at 5:1 to Karen Leibovici's beaten up Atlantica at 200:1 for a class win. For the multihulls we reckon the span of the odds to be much tighter.

Our odds are based on the form of the boats in races over the last two seasons but in The Transat the singlehanded offshore racing experience of the skipper, particularly in 60ft multihulls, will count for a great deal too.

Singlehanded races in the ORMA class are relatively rare, happening once every two years alternating between the Route du Rhum and The Transat. Most of the existing fleet was built especially to compete in the 2002 Route du Rhum but that race proved so devasting for the fleet that only three boats finished - Michel Desjoyeaux's Geant ultimately won but stopped twice, Marc Guillemot's Biscuits la Trinitaine (not racing) was second having stopped in the Azores, while Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire was the only boat not to stop, but this was because he took a circuitous and ultimately slow route to the north of the Azores. We feel these results have little bearing on the form for The Transat.

Judging from his results over the last two seasons Frank Cammas and Groupama are the clear favourites. Last year Cammas (right) won all the races on the ORMA circuit save for the Cagliari Grand Prix where he finished second. This includes the two handed Transat Jacques Vabre. Ironically Groupama is the second oldest boat in the fleet but Cammas knows the boat oh so very well. In Grand Prix over the last season Groupama has consistently proved to be the fastest boat, although at the recent La Trinite Grand Prix many believed Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini to be the faster ( see our report from La Trinite).

Michel Desjoyeaux's Geant is our number two favourite. With two wins in the Solitaire du Figaro and wins the Vendee Globe and the Route du Rhum, his solo sailing credentials are impeccible and he is also a top seaman. His boat is regularly placing third behind Sergio Tacchini and Groupama, but in our opinion his experience outweighs that of Sergio Tacchini skipper Karine Fauconnier, who we feel is a contender for fourth place, close behind Swiss skipper Steve Ravussin.

Ravussin is often compared to his Swiss forebears Laurent and Yvan Bourgnon, all taking a 'fearless' approach to the distinctly scary practise of driving overpowered multihulls relentlessly hard across oceans singlehanded. Ravussin has the oldest boat in the fleet (formerly Alain Gautier's Foncia - although much modified since) and it should be remembered he was leading the 2002 Route du Rhum by a country mile until he flipped 734 miles from the finish. Ravussin definitely has the potential to win, but also to capsize as Laurent Bourgnon did in 1996.

Karine Fauconnier is the journalist's favourite for many reasons - if she won it would be a fitting anniversary to her father's win in 1984. While Ellen MacArthur won the Open 60 class in 2000, Florence Arthaud won the Route du Rhum in 1990, a female skipper has yet to win The Transat outright. Fauconnier's boat clearly has the legs to win. Interestingly it is the only Nigel Irens-designed boat remaining in the fleet and Irens boats have won the race ever since 1988. If Fauconnier has any shortcomings it is her experience racing 60ft trimarans short handed.

Everyone is waiting for Thomas Coville's Sodebo to show her true potential. Her ranking in our odds table is based on her track record on the race course to date. However Coville is known to prefer offshore racing than Grand Prix and it should be remembered that before he retired from the 2002 Route du Rhum, his boat suffering structural problems (like many others in the fleet), he was was also leading. Sodebo is the widest (and thus most powerful) boat in the trimaran fleet but this potential is unlikely to be realised in a race like The Transat.

Alain Gautier's Foncia is a similar if slightly more sorry story. Gautier is a former Solitaire du Figaro and Vendee Globe winner and has all the solo offshore racing credentials a man could want. He was also showing considerable success in the 60ft trimaran class with his old Foncia. Unfortunately since the launch of his new Foncia he has yet to turn in a good result let alone consistent results and his boat has been dogged with technical issues - masts breaking, capsizes, etc. Could this be the race Foncia comes good?

Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire differs slightly from the boats we have mentioned so far in that she is a Marc Lombard design, like Philippe Monnet's Sopra Group. On the ORMA circuit the boat has been a top mid-fleeter. Four years ago Roucayrol capsized in the Europe 1 New Man STAR and he will not be wanting to repeat this. He may also think twice about taking a flier since this failed so badly in the Route du Rhum.

Gitana XI, is the hot new boat from the Gitana stable but in our mind has the wrong skipper for this race. Fred le Peutrec has a strong background in Olympic Tornado sailing and sailed around the world on Club Med in The Race, but is not known for singlehanded offshore racing, whereas his team mate Marc Guillemot holds this in spades. This boat was previously Jean-Luc Nelias' Belgacom and if she had her original skipper on board then we would be ranking her around third or fourth.

We don't have a great deal to say about Sopra Group other than to date she has failed to perform. Skipper Philippe Monnet is experienced and well regarded for his record breaking, but not for his race winning.

Despite having an exceptionally talented design team and being built by Gilles Ollier's Chantier Multiplast, Gitana X, has regularly been the slowest boat in the fleet. This year she has a new skipper in Marc Guillemot and if there is one man who can drive this boat upwind it is he.

On pure form TIM of Around Alone winner Giovanni Soldini is down the pan too. The boat lacks some of the go-faster features of the other boats in the ORMA class, but Soldini is a tough-nut, enjoys the Transat (this will be his fourth race) and if there is one race in which Soldini could come good then it will be this. Soldini is also the favourite of 2000 winner Francis Joyon on the basis that he is the underdog as Joyon was in 2000.

And then there's Yves Parlier's new catamaran. Her crew reports that the boat is something of a pig upwind. Her designers say that in anything between 8 to 22 knots of breeze the trimarans will be faster, but in light conditions she has less wetted surface area and in heavy conditions, provided the seas are not huge and it is not upwind she has to potential to demolish the trimarans. Quite why Parlier is undertaking what is possibly the most inappropriate race for his boat in the ORMA calendar remains to be seen. Parlier is Parlier and is never one to make obvious choices. Yet he is one of the smartest sailors in this fleet and we would predict that is there is one man looking at alternative routes for tomorrow's race it will be he. He may attempt an extremely southerly or northerly route for example in order to remain in favourable winds. Equally possible is that because his boat is so new and radical she may not make the course. Parlier's party line over competing in The Transat is that he just wants to get to the other side.

This will be one interesting race to watch.

Ellen MacArthur gave thedailysail her view: "Sure, there are boats when you look back at the history are more likely to win. Cammas has an old boat he knows pretty well. It is interesting – Fred le Peutrec has got Belgacom, Karine knows her boat well, the boat is an Irens. It is a new mixture so we just don’t know. I really feel that. This time there has been a lot less work on the dock, the people have been a lot more ready and everyone seems more relaxed."

Photos of the competitors and their craft on the following pages...