Qualification update

The latest from The Artemis Transat

With a little more than one month to go before the start of The Artemis Transat, all the current 26 teams are in the final stages of preparation. After several months in the boat yard, Kito de Pavant's Groupe Bel sailed for the first time this year in the bay of Port Camargue. Samantha Davies, Roxy and Yann Elies, Generali are now back in the water in Lorient; while BT and Artemis Ocean Racing, to be officially launched on Monday, will meet up with their natural element soon. The coming weeks will be an intense time for all the skippers as the boats continue with their testing and preparation programme. Some of the skippers still have to complete their race qualifer for The Artemis Transat so they can cross the start line of the race on Sunday, 11 May from Sutton Harbour, Plymouth.

Every skipper must make a singlehanded qualifying passage of at least 1,000 nautical miles on the boat they will compete in. Many of IMOCA 60 skippers validated their qualifying route in the Transat Ecover BtoB race on condition that the boat had no major modifications following this race. That is the case with Akena Vérandas, Foncia, Roxy, Safran, Groupe Bel and Cervin EnR.

Five IMOCA 60s have recently made changes to their keel or mast and so have to make a shorter qualifying route of 300 miles. For skippers who will sail a newly launched boat, such as Dee Caffari ( Aviva) or Jonny Malbon ( Artemis Ocean Racing), a complete voyage of 1000 nautical miles is compulsory.

IMOCA 60 skippers who have completed their qualifiers:
Akena Vérandas/ Arnaud Boissieres
Cervin EnR/ Yannick Bestaven
Foncia/ Michel Desjoyeaux
Groupe Bel/ Kito de Pavant
Pakea Bizkaia 2009/ Unai Basurko
Roxy/ Sam Davies
Safran/ Marc Guillemot

IMOCA 60 skippers still to complete qualifier:
Artemis/ Jonny Malbon
Aviva/ Dee Caffari
Britair/ Armel Le Cleac'h
BT/ Sébastien Josse
Ecover/ Mike Golding
Generali/ Yann Elies
Gitana 80/ Loick Peyron
Pindar/ Brian Thompson
PRB/ Vincent Riou

In the Class 40 fleet, only Simon Clarke and Halvard Mabire have yet to qualify. The other eight skippers currently entered in The Artemis Transat completed theirs on the return delivery from the Transat Jacques Vabre; or, for some, more recently as a training session, such as, Alex Bennett and Miranda Merron who recently completed their miles qualifiers in heavy seas and storm force winds.

The Artemis Transat Race chooses Musto

Musto, the brand of choice for extreme ocean racing, has been appointed Official Clothing Partner to The Artemis Transat 2008. This year, over 50% of entries in the 2008 Artemis Transatlantic Race are expected to be wearing Musto, including Britain's Mike Golding and the French ace Vincent Riou.

Nigel Musto commented: "Musto is consistently the sailors' brand of choice for extreme singlehanded events such as The Artemis Transat and the Vendée Globe, and the fully-crewed Volvo Ocean Race. Professionals demand excellence from every aspect of the vessel and its equipment. The faster boats go, the better our clothing must work. We are proud to be the brand of choice for The Artemis Transat.we won't let them down."