Getting legal

Bruno Peyron, organiser of The Race, speaks out against Tracy Edwards' two new round the world events

We have received the following from Bruno Peyron:

Bruno Peyron, founder and organiser of The Race and current record holder of The Jules Verne Trophy, responds to the announcement made by sailor Tracy Edwards regarding the organisation of two round the world races directly inspired by The Race and The Race Tour concepts.

The sailor Tracy Edwards has just announced that she will organise, in partnership with Qatar, two round the world crewed sailboat races: the first in 2005, without stop-overs and reserved for maxi multi-hulls; the second scheduled for 2006 and open to both maxi multi-hulls (over 100 feet) and maxi mono-hulls (over 110 feet) with stop-overs in Asia and America. These two projects are thinly disguised copies of the concepts from The Race and The Race Tour, which were imagined, conceived and developed by The Race Event. The English sailor also announced that the winner of the Jules Verne Trophy will receive a financial prize.

This announcement, which curiously was made hardly a week after the postponement of the 2004 edition of The Race (non-stop round the world race, reserved for maxi multi-hulls), did not fail to astonish Bruno Peyron, founder and organiser of The Race, cofounder and current record holder of the Jules Verne Trophy. Effectively, what Tracy Edwards has just announced is nothing other than the exact copy of the very concept and philosophy of The Race and The Race Tour, events imagined, conceived and developed over 10 years and with substantial investment by The Race Event.

Bruno Peyron: “I am astounded by the contempt, hypocrisy and especially the dishonesty of the project’s promoters. Tracy Edward’s team regularly attended all of the challengers meetings that we organised for The Race and The Race Tour in Paris for two years with a view to her participation therein. I am forced to acknowledge that these people, who had our complete confidence, were provided all the benefit of our work, know how, data bases, expertise, and our help, have taken advantage of all this in order to launch theses events which, more than competing with our own, are a virtual counterfeit of our ideas, concepts and our accumulated work for over 10 years. I find this attitude no less than shocking, dishonest and unworthy of the values that The Race has defended since its inception (openness, tolerance, humanity, respect, exchange…). This project is all the more improper as it was led without the slightest consultation with the principal challengers, in the most suspicious secrecy and under the initiative of persons having no prior competence in organising international events of this dimension.
"Moreover, in regards to the proposal to endow the Jules Verne Trophy with a cash prize, Tracy Edward’s team has launched this project without any prior consultation with the founding members of the Jules Verne Trophy (including me) and in contempt of the spirit of the association which owns the rights. The association asserts its entire liberty with respect to sponsoring and has always refused to associate a brand with the event ! This behaviour is completely irresponsible and inadmissible. Needless to say, The Race Event, owner of The Race and The Race Tour events and related intellectual property rights, reserves the right to pursue this matter by all legal means available. We will keep all concerned parties informed of the development of this matter."

Tracy Edwards is abroad currently and at present is unavailable for comment. Watch this space...