Transat Jacques Vabre - the Open 60s

We look at the form going into this weekend's start

Tuesday October 30th 2007, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic

It is testament to the strength of the IMOCA fleet at the moment that the Transat Jacques Vabre (starting this weekend from Le Havre bound for Salvador, Brazil) and the Barcelona World Race setting sail a week later, have both managed to put together such strong line-ups.

Typically stars of the biennial Transat Jacques Vabre, as is the case with most major French oceanic races, are the ORMA 60 trimarans, but with only five examples of the world's most exciting race boats competing many believe this to be their last race. Sniff. More about this in due course.

This year, the show stealers, moored along one entire length of Le Havre's Bassin Paul Vatine, are the Open 60s. 17 of these IMOCA class boats are entered, compared to 12 two years ago, numbers bolstered this week with the late arrival of Spanish Velux 5 Oceans competitor Unai Basurko with his Pakea Bizkaia 2009. Of the 17, seven are 'new generation' ie built in this Vendee Globe cycle, while for five of these the TJV will be their first race.

With such a new fleet, normal circumstances would suggest that there would be a high attrition rate - boats head out into the Atlantic, get caught by an autumnal depression, something goes ping and they put into Brest or Port la Foret to 'consider their options'. For this reason in our form guide below we have included a field that takes into account the newness or how tried and tested each boat is.

Over a 4,300 mile long race like the Transat Jacques Vabre, longevity such as this is certain to come into play at some point, however competitors with newer boats may well have some reprieve, at least in the short term, as the present forecast for the start indicates an area of high pressure over the Western Approaches with a shallow depression to the west of it - ie precious little isobar action in the Channel come next weekend. Of course this could well all change, but the 5-10 knot northeasterlies of the present forecast bode well for those with less miles under their belts.

As to our form guide, aside from their ability to finish we've ranked each entry in terms of how we think their boats will perform, based on what we think of their design and how they have been put together. We have also added a factor for the crew, their individual credentials given past experience and amount of time in Open 60s and shorthanded sailing. Again this is slightly hard to judge because although Sebastien Col and Tanguy Cariou are two of France's most talented inshore races - Col, sailing on Groupe Bel was helm of Areva Challenge in the last Cup, while Cariou, sailing with Bernard Stamm, was Col's AC tactician - it is hard to know how they will fare in the more imprecise and personnally far more taxing world of offshore racing shorthanded on an overpowered boat.

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Co-skipper	Designer	Launched		Boat	Crew	Finish?	Tot
							/10	/10	/7
1	Foncia	Michel Desjoyeaux (Fra)	Emmanuel Le Borgne (Fra)	Farr	2007		9	10	5	24
2	VM Materiaux	Jean Le Cam (Fra)	Gildas Morvan (Fra)	Lombard	2004	ex Bonduelle	7	10	6	23
3	Safran	Marc Guillemot (Fra)	Charles Caudrelier (Fra)	Verdier/VPLP	2007		9	9	4	22
4	Gitana Eighty	Loïck Peyron (Fra)	Jean Baptiste Levaillant (Fra)	Farr	2007		8	10	4	22
5	Ecover	Mike Golding (GB)	Bruno Dubois (Can)	Owen-Clarke	2007		9	9	3	21
6	Cheminées Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm (Swi)	Tanguy Cariou (Fra)	Farr	2003	ex Virbac-Paprec	6	9	6	21
7	Groupe Bel	Kito de Pavant (Fra)	Sebastien Col (Fra)	Verdier/VPLP	2007		9	8	3	20
8	Brit Air	Armel Le Cléac'h (Fra)	Nicolas Troussel (Fra)	Finot-Conq	2007		8	8	4	20
9	Roxy	Samantha Davies (GBR)	Jeanne Grégoire (Fra)	Finot-Conq	2000	ex PRB	5	8	6	19
10	Generali	Yann Elies (Fra)	Sébastien Audigane (Fra)	Finot-Conq	2007		7	7	5	19
11	Artemis	Jonny Malbon (GB)	Graham Tourell (GB)	Owen-Clarke	2003	ex Hexagon/Pindar	8	4	6	18
12	Maisonneuve	Jean Baptiste Dejeanty (Fra)	Hervé Laurent (Fra)	Lavranos	2005	ex Galileo	6	6	5	17
13	Cervin EnR	Yannick Bestaven (Fra)	Ronan Guerin (Fra)	Finot-Conq	1996	ex Aquitaine Innovations	4	7	5	16
14	Akena Vérandas	Arnaud Boissières (Fra)	Jean-Philippe Chomette (Fra)	Finot-Conq	1998	ex-Sodebo/VMI	4	6	6	16
15	Aviva	Dee Caffari (GB)	Nigel King (GB)	Finot-Conq	1998	ex-Team Group 4/Hellomoto	5	4	6	15
16	Great American III	Rich Wilson (USA)	Mike Birch (Can)	Joubert-Nivelt	1999	ex Solidaires	3	5	5	13
17	Pakea Bizkaia 2009	Unai Basurko (Spa)	Gonzalo Gandarias (Spa)	Murray, Burns, Dovell	2005		3	3	5	11

And so it is that we have Michel Desjoyeaux and his new Farr-designed Foncia winning. By coincidence the top three boats in our line-up are also believed to be the lightest among the TJV Open 60s, all around or just over the 8 ton mark (teams tend to be very tight lipped when it comes to discussing displacement). Of the Farr boats, Foncia is the most extreme we have seen with next to nothing inside it and a strict weight regime that has seen the pit winch stripped from the boat, along with headsail sheet tracks, in the name of shedding excess grams. The only compromise weight-wise is Foncia's sliding cabin top.

As to the credentials of the Foncia crew - Desjoyeaux needs no introduction as a past winner of the Vendee Globe (2000), the Transat (2004) and the Route du Rhum (2002). This year Desjoyeaux proved he has lost none of this skill when he the Solitaire du Figaro, ranking him alongside Philippe Poupon and Jean le Cam as the only people ever to have won the effective world championship of solo offshore racing three times. Emmanual Le Borgne we don't know but Desjoyeaux has the experience and a successful approach to putting boats together, while the new Foncia already has the track record, having convincingly won this year's Record SNSM race. She shows blistering pace in last weekend's prologue race.

In second place we have Jean le Cam's VM Materiaux. She is the only one in the top eight boats to be an older generation boat, but le Cam has carried out considerable work on her, in particular trying to remove weight and she is now believed to be one of the lightest in the fleet. What the boat might lack in raw horsepower compared to the new boats, she should make up in reliability while 48 year old le Cam has one of the most formidable CVs, from the Whitbread with Tabarly to Formula 40 champion to his three Solitaire du Figaro wins to skippering 60ft trimarans to Open 60s. With him on board is Figaro veteran Gildas Morvan.

Marc Guillemot's Safran is the first in our list of as-yet unraced boats. The boat is the newer of the two boats designed by the new kids on the block in the Open 60 world - Guillaume Verdier and ORMA 60 gurus Marc van Peteghem/Vincent Lauriot Prevost. Safran showed excellent pace (as did her sistership Groupe Bel) during Saturday's prologue. Compared to the Finot/Conqs, Owen Clarkes and Farrs, these boats appear to be not as beamy overall, but are probably similar on the waterline thanks to being more slab-sided. Safran is fitted with a conventionally rigged spar while Groupe Bel has a wingmast. Considering that Safran's skipper has a 20 year background racing top multihulls from Jet Services in the 1980s to skippering the Biscuits la Trinitaine 60ft tris in the 1990s, while Groupe Bel's has a strong background in the Figaro, one might have expected the rig configurations to be the other way around. Racing with Marc Guillemot is Charles Caudrelier, another Solitaire du Figaro winner, who has been attempting to get his own Open 60 campaign together.

At present a joke in French sailing circles is how most people in Brittany are working for Baron Rothschild's Gitana team. Among their armada are two 60ft trimarans (only one is racing the TJV, with Route du Rhum Lionel Lemonchois at the helm again), a maxi-cat and now an Open 60, Gitana Eighty for Team Manager Loick Peyron. As discussed in our interview with Peyron, his Farr-designed boat was put together alongside Jean-Pierre Dick's Paprec-Virbac at Southern Ocean Marine in NZ and has similar unique features such as the giant planing board along the underside of the transom and a sliding cockpit cover. But is she fast? Tied up at the dock she appears to have too much kit compared to the other boats - her three part sliding hatch and giant trim tab cannot be light (although two parts of her sliding hatch won't be going to Brazil). Saying this, we felt the same about Virbac when we first saw her four years ago. However we rate Peyron as one of France's most talented sailors alongside MichDes and Groupama skipper Franck Cammas, and we think it most unlikely Peyron has come up with a lemon in his new steed. We imagine that she will also have benefitted from being second out of the mould behind Virbac-Paprec and had many of her bugs ironed out by Jean-Pierre Dick's team. It should be remembered that Peyron was on board Dick's old Virbac-Paprec two years ago when they claimed Open 60 line honours in the TJV. Racing with Peyron is his regular trimaran crewman and sailmaker, Jean-Baptiste Levaillant who runs the Incidences sail loft in La Rochelle.

Mike Golding's new Ecover was late onto the water, having only arrived in the UK just before Southampton Boat Show in early September and having had precious little time at sea other than her qualifier. Golding is the most capped Open 60 skipper in this Transat Jacques Vabre fleet having competed in three Vendee Globes and this is his third Open 60, following on from his highly successful previous boats Team Group 4 (now Dee Caffari's Aviva) and Ecover (now Mutua Madrilena - racing imminently in the Barcelona World Race). The new Ecover looked quick in Saturday's prologue but have Golding and his new shore team led by Matt Cowpe (formerly skipper of Charles Dunstone's Hamilton) had enough time to iron out the bugs, ensuring the boat makes it to Brazil? Sailing with Golding is North Sails France's Bruno Dubois, himself a highly experienced sailor with two Whitbreads under his belt.

Cheminees Poujoulat has the advantage of knowing the way to Brazil well. As Jean-Pierre Dick's Virbac-Paprec, the boat has won the Open 60 class in the last two TJVs, Dick sailing first with his shore manager Nicolas Abiven and then in 2005 with Loick Peyron. Earlier this year the boat was acquired by two time Around Alone/Velux 5 Oceans winner Bernard Stamm and repainted in the yellow and black livery familiar to those who followed the V5O. Perhaps the boat's success in this race can make up for Stamm's lack of it. Having competed in the last three TJVs he has finished only once, the first in 2001 when he was a disappointing eighth having experienced sail damage. Since Stamm took over the boat, she has had mixed results. She finished ninth and second last in the Calais Round Britain Race but was second Open 60 home in the Rolex Fastnet Race. While Stamm is renowned as a belt and braces seaman, his crew for the TJV is Tanguy Cariou who should bring some finesse to the Swiss skipper's game as an AC tactician, but also having spent much time in a similar role among Franck Cammas' grand prix crew on board the Groupama 60ft tris.

Groupe Bel, is a sistership of Safran, but was built in Italy and was delivered late. She is one of the few Open 60s here where there still appears to be major work being carried out at this late stage. Certainly a strong line honours contender come Vendee Globe time, she looked extremely pacy in Saturday's prologue, but she may prove too new to make the distance in the TJV. Skipper Kito de Pavant is another Solitaire du Figaro winner of old and while new to the Open 60 class as a skipper, sailed with Jean le Cam in the TJV on board Bonduelle two years ago. Sailing with de Pavant is of course leading match race and America's Cup helmsman Sebastien Col, who is certainly a most talented sailor, but how well will he get on offshore shorehanded? Does he know where the foredeck is?

How Britair will get on is another unknown. She is a Finot-Conq design and a sistership to Yann Elies' Generali which to date hasn't shown great pace on the race course. Maybe the team behind BritAir have got it right. Her crew are two of the Figaro class' top sailors, both Solitaire winners - skipper Armel le Cleac'h in 2003 while Nicolas Troussel won last year. Both are extremely talented sailors, but lack miles in Open 60s, hence a lower ranking than perhaps their form in the Figaro would indicate.

Generali should have benefitted from being the first of the Finot-Conq designs to emerge from Multiplast this year prior to BritAir, but to date skipper Yann Elies hasn't managed to coax great pace out of his new steed. After a very slow start she was fifth in the Calais Round Britain Race and finished eighth in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Elies is a highly experienced Figaro sailor who has raced around the world on board the Orange maxi-cat in the Jules Verne Trophy. Sailing with him in the TJV is another experienced Figaro sailor Sebastien Audigane.

Into the older generation boats and most promising of these (aside from Jean le Cam's VM Materiaux) is Sam Davies and Jeanne Gregoire's Roxy. The boat is obviously the former PRB, winner of the last two Vendee Globes and thus not one, but two, generations old. However the boat is still competitive with its newer rivals downwind and Davies and Gregoire are much capped short handed sailors. While they have been long term rivals in the Figaro class, the two previously sailed together in the class' Transat AG2R in 2004 when they finished fifth. Compared to some of her other ex-Figaro rivals, Davies holds considerably more experience in the class having previously raced the TJV with Nick Moloney on Skandia.

It will be interesting to see how the girls get on against the boys on Artemis Ocean Racing. Artemis is substantially newer than Roxy and potentially much faster having had the benefit of being 'Sandersoned' prior to the last TJV (from which Moose and Emma Richards were forced to pull out). The campaign also has a large budget that has enabled a significant refit - new keel, new sails, etc - since the Fastnet. However with skipper Jonny Malbon having taken over from Brian Thompson boat earlier this year and Graham 'Gringo' Tourell, finally getting his break to go shorthanded ocean racing having spent many years couped up as Mike Golding's shore manager, this is very much a fledgling crew when it comes to shorthanded ocean racing.

Maisonneuve is a new boat to be so far down the list. A design by Angelo Lavranos (a big name in the class in the 1980s when he penned John Martin's beamy Allied Bank) the boat was sailed in the last TJV as Galileo with Brazilian owner Walter Antunes. Designer Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty competed in the last TJV on one of his own designs and subsequently acquired Galileo. While neither boat nor skipper has shown any great form on the race course, Dejeanty is racing with the very experienced Herve Laurent, a former Vendee Globe competitor who has previously sailed the TJV in Open 60s and 60ft tris. Two years on has Maisonneuve found her form? A seventh place in the Fastnet suggests she hasn't.

Below Maisonneuve, purely by virtue of their sailing substantially older boats are two entries driven by former leading Mini sailors who have turned to the Figaro. Cervin ENR is being skippered by Yannick Bestaven who won the Mini Transat in 2001 and has since been working on Yves Parlier's Mediatis Region Aquitaine catamaran in addition to his Figaro sailing. His Open 60 is naturally Parlier's former Aquitaine Innovations, the first boat to attempt to stick on an ORMA 60-style wingmast on to an Open 60 by fitting deck spreaders, a trend that continues on many of the newer boats today. While the weapon of its day, the boat is 11 years old now and surely too long in the tooth. Racing with Bestaven is another leading Mini sailor who has turned to the Figaro, Ronan Guerin.

Bestaven and Guerin will be up against their old foe Arnaud Boissieres aboard the former Sodebo/ VMI, now called Akena Verandas, a 2000 generation boat sailed to fourth place in the last Vendee Globe by Seb Josse. In the Transat Bestaven won, Boissieres finished third (behind Britain's Simon Curwen). Boissieres has since gone Figaro sailing too, but in 2005 teamed up with Jean-Philippe Chomette on the latter's 60 footer Solune, in which they set new records for sailing around Britain and around Ireland. The duo have now teamed up again on Boissieres' Open 60, but again like Cervin ENR this boat must now be too old to represent much of a threat to the newer generation.

The same can be said for Dee Caffari's Aviva. This will be the last race Dee sails on this boat - also a 2000 generation machine - before taking charge of her new Aviva, a sistership to the new Ecover, early next year. Caffari is very much in Open 60 training mode prior to next year's Vendee Globe and to this end is sailing with experienced coach Nigel King. However we hark back eight years to Ellen MacArthur being in this similar situation - keen to learn Open 60s prior to the Vendee. At this point Ellen was about to set off on the TJV crewing for the eminent Yves Parlier. While Nigel King is certainly a top sailor, with due respect he is no Yves Parlier and one wonders if Dee isn't staying too much in her comfort zone... Shouldn't she be sailing with Jean le Cam?

From the US of A, comes Great American III. Rich Wilson has sailed many many miles shorthanded, including OSTARs and numerous record attempts aboard his previous boats of this name. His present steed is Thierry Dubois' old Joubert Nivelt designed Solidaires, built after Dubois was nearly killed in the 1996 Vendee Globe and safe, and therefore heavy as a result. Racing with Wilson is offshore racing legend Mike Birch, winner of the first Route du Rhum in 1978 and although 75 years old, still fit as a fiddle and very much with competitive juices in full flow. Birch has been wondering around the press office here in Le Havre growling about wanting the race to start and the boat being too heavy! Being second last on our list is not down to the crew experience but the potential of their steed.

Last on the list we have Unai Basurko's Pakea. Although a new boat, compared to others immediately above her on this list, the boat appeared so off the pace throughout the Velux 5 Oceans, along with Busurko's highly dubious tactics and routing, that we have no choice but to put her resoundingly last.