ORMA 60 form guide

Cammas leads Desjoyeaux - but only just in our Route du Rhum ratings

ORMA 60 form guide

Odds x:	Skipper	Age	Nat	Boat	Designer	Launched	Notes
3	Franck Cammas	33	FRA	Groupama	VPLP	2004
3.5	Michel Desjoyeaux	41	FRA	Géant	VPLP	2002
4	Pascal Bidégorry	38	FRA	Banque Populaire IV	Irens/Cabaret	2002	ex Bayer Cropscience
4.5	Thomas Coville	38	FRA	Sodebo	VPLP	2002
5	Alain Gautier	44	FRA	Foncia	VPLP	2002
5.5	Lionel Lemonchois	46	FRA	Gitana 11	VPLP	2001	ex Belgacom
7	Stève Ravussin	38	SWI	Orange Project	Lombard	2001	ex Banque Populaire III
8	Yvan Bourgnon	35	SWI	Brossard	Irens/Cabaret	2001	ex Sergio Tacchini
20	Antoine Koch	28	FRA	Sopra Group	Lombard	2002
70	Thierry Duprey du Vorsent	36	FRA	Gitana 12	VPLP	2000	ex Bonduelle
200	Claude Thelier	44	FRA	Région Guadeloupe - Terres de Passions	VPLP	1990	ex Primagaz
500	Gilles Lamiré	36	FRA	Madinina	Ollier	1988	ex Elf Aquitaine

Wow - if we thought choosing odds for the Open 60s was tough, making them up for the ORMA 60 class has been several times harder. Generally the ORMA 60 fleet is more mature, the skippers in this class are phenomenally experienced and the boats are equally refined. The newest boat and the only one built since the last, disastrous Route du Rhum has been Groupama II, while a majority were purpose-built to win the last race and have since been optimised heavily to make them competitive and relatively reliable.

The odds above have been created taking into account the weather, including a lighter than normal, highly tactical first 48 hours, and the skippers who might best deal with this.



Talking to a variety of race pundits around the giant media centre here in St Malo, opinion falls into two distinct camps when it comes to predicting the race winner - the pro-Cammas (above left) and the pro-Desjoyeaux (right) groups - and while all admit it is close between them, they are all equally adamant that their choice is correct. Personally we are probably erring in favour of Cammas. His boat is unquestionably the fastest in light to moderate conditions and given that this is the forecast for the start of the race, we reckon our star could be way ahead by the time the boats are out of the Bay of Biscay. The cons of Cammas are that he capsized his trimaran in the last Route du Rhum four years ago and again in last year's Transat Jacques Vabre (spookily both capsizes occurred on 10 November - fortunately this time Cammas should be well arrived in Guadeloupe by the time this evil date arrives this year). He is not the most accomplished singlehanded sailor in these powerful boats - the only reason why his form for this race may be slightly tarnished. It should be pointed out that outside of his capsizes Cammas has also finished third in the 2004 Transat and won the 2001 and 2003 Transat Jacques Vabres. (Read out account of sailing on board Groupama II here or watch the video).



In comparison to Cammas' Groupama II, Desjoyeaux's boat, Geant, is certainly on the pace, but has generally never proved to be as fast as Cammas' newer green streak. But le Professeur does hold a phenomenal track record when it comes to singlehanded races be it in trimarans or Open 60s - he (and he alone) has won the Vendee Globe, the Transat (OSTAR) and the Route du Rhum, not to mention the Solitaire du Figaro on two occasions. When it comes to singlehanded racing Desjoyeaux is quite simply THE MAN. The reason he is a close second is down to boat speed - we don't think Geant will be as fast out of the blocks as Cammas at the all-important start of this year's race.

Including Cammas and Desjoyeaux, we reckon eight of the 12 ORMA 60 skippers stand a very good chance of winning - all are solid, highly experienced, competitve skippers racing fast, reliable boats. But within this group are sailors with many different attributes. Pascal Bidegorry for example is another hugely experienced Figaro sailor, albeit relatively new to the ORMA 60s, and his Banque Populaire IV is the one boat this year that from time to time has proved herself to be as fast as Groupama II. Once again opinion is divided when it comes to Bidegorry's prospects, some rating him highly, others saying that he lacks the experience singlehanded in what is one of the most challenging boats to sail fast on your own across an ocean. Unlike Geant and Groupama II his boat is a Nigel Irens/Benoit Cabaret design, powerful but with less freeboard than the van Peteghem/Prevost boats.



Sodebo skipper Thomas Coville would be higher up our list if the weather forecast for the Route du Rhum was a stronger one. Coville is one of the most rounded professional sailors having sailed round the world on maxi cats in the Whitbread, having competed in the Mini Transat and Figaro as well as the America's Cup. In the past two years he has sailed singlehanded considerably more than any of the ORMA skippers having abandoned the ORMA circuit in favour of carrying out numerous singlehanded record attempts. This would in our view put Coville into the top three, except Sodebo is one of the 'biggest' 60s - she is the heaviest, the widest (18.6m beam on a LOA of 18.2m) and with the most sail area and this could a hindrance in the light to moderate forecast for the early stage of the race.

Another sailing legend, Alain Gautier falls into a similar category. In September 2004 Alain Gautier retired as skipper of Foncia, to become campaign manager, handing over the reins to Solitaire du Figaro winner Armel le Cleac'h. However after a capsize in last year's Transat Jacques Vabre which nearly killed crewman Damian Foxall (read about this here) le Cleac'h resigned and this promsing young skipper is now embarking on a Vendee Globe campaign. The boat has done little this year, however Foncia were keen to be involved with the Route du Rhum and the boat is here. While Gautier has similarly large experience of 60ft trimaran racing to Cammas and Desjoyeaux this lack of time in the boat recently in our view is unlikely to put him into the top three (watch out for our inteview with Gautier next week).



With Baron Benjamin Rothschild now effectively controlling the MultiCup grand prix circuit for the ORMA 60s, so his Gitana team represent a real threat for Cammas' all-conquering Groupama team. However they have trouble settling on skippers and with their latest choice they have gone full circle. This year for the Grand Prix Fred le Peutrec has been replaced at the helm by the only man to have ever seriously challenged Cammas on the 60ft trimaran circuit in recent years - Loick Peyron. However having had a hideous ordeal in the last Route du Rhum when his trimaran folded up around him (hear Peyron describe this here) Peyron has been understandly reluctant to sail this race and has handed the tiller back to Lionel Lemonchois (right). So the story has come full circle, as Lemonchois was the original appointed skipper of Gitana XI when she was changed into the Baron colours but he was replaced by Fred le Peutrec back in April 2004, just before the Transat.

While Lemonchois (nicknamed Lionel Le Bon Chance) does not have the track record as a 60ft trimaran skipper comparible to his peers he is a big powerful guy, acknowledged on the circuit as being one of the most sought-after crew and is generally rated highly. With extensive development by the team, Gitana XI is now getting close to being able to challenge Groupama.

Aside from cuckoo-clocks, precision watch making, banking and America's Cup winners Switzerland has always done a good line in trimaran skippers with the largest imaginable cajones. These include the two Bourgnon brothers, Yvan and his elder brother and two time Route du Rhum winner Laurent and Steve Ravussin.



To give you an example - sadly a story we missed (apologies dear readers) but Yvan Bourgnon who skippers Brossard, (formerly Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini) back in August set a new singlehanded 24 hour record of 610.24 miles. During this time Bourgnon came within a hair's breadth of destroying not only his boat but himself. Powering along with what one imagines was considerable pace, his trimaran dived down the mine into the bottom of a wave trough, causing the boat to virtually pitchpole. To gve you some idea how close Brossard came to going over: her skipper was in the cockpit at the time and fell downwards onto the main beam at this point directly below him and from there continued his descent down to the bowsprit, where fortunately he became hooked up. Eventually after teetering on the brink, the boat's stern smashed back down into the water and Bourgnon was able to clamber back on to the bow. He was back up to record breaking speed again within three minutes.... Obviously he was alone on board at the time with no witnesses and nothing has been lost in the telling, but it perhaps gives some indication of Bourgnon's character.

The behaviour of Orange Project skipper Steve Ravussin is no less extreme and he will be keen to make amends after seeing victory slip through his fingers four years ago when he capsized while leading the 60ft trimaran fleet in the trade winds with 734 miles (or two days of sailing) to go before reaching Guadeloupe.

These are the potential winners in the ORMA class and given that the strongest winds the present forecast is showing are expected to be no more than 25-30 knots there is a good chance that a majority of them will make it across the Atlantic.