Race favourite?

Miranda Merron and Halvard Mabire enter Global Ocean Race

The Anglo-French team of Miranda Merron and Halvard Mabire have officially entered the Global Ocean Race with a new Finot-Conq Design Pogo S² Class40 hull and deck due to arrive from Structures and delivered to their own yard in Normandy at the end of September with an unusual and tough GOR campaign plan in place.

The that will bring an enormous bank of offshore experience to the double-handed circumnavigation.

For Mabire and Merron, entering the GOR is a fresh offshore challenge: “All adventures start with a wish, but also as a result of meeting people,” explains 53 year-old Mabire. “Miranda and I have already shared a few adventures and we trust each other implicitly on the boat, which is essential on a double-handed race,” he adds. Merron agrees fully with her co-skipper: “I am delighted to be racing with Halvard,” confirms the 41 year-old. “He has many thousands of miles of ocean racing experience and has been around the world a few times. Also, we work well together on the boat.”

This practical partnership on board is a key element of the campaign. “Our skills and experience are complementary,” Mabire continues. “The few thousand miles we have sailed together have strengthened our wish to race together in the Global Ocean Race,” he says. “And, as our campaign is Anglo-French and fully bilingual, this means that we will be able to share our adventure with a wider audience.”

The duo’s racing CV is an impressive register of grand prix offshore events: Mabire has 33 years and more than 300,000 miles of offshore racing experience with five Whitbread Round the World Races, 32 transatlantic races including The Artemis Transat and OSTAR with victories in the Quebec–St Malo and TwoStar and extensive Solitaire du Figaro participation. Merron’s track record is similarly impressive with solo, double-handed and fully-crewed races including the Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabre, Route du Nouveau Monde, Volvo Ocean Race and a Jules Verne Trophy attempt on the catamaran Royal & Sun Alliance. Most recently, Merron won the 2008 Class40 Championship and last year she took seventh place in the double-handed Solidaire du Chocolat on Class40 40 Degrees. She also broke the Round Britain and Ireland record on Dee Caffari’s IMOCA 60 Aviva.

Many sailors with a racing pedigree similar to Mabire and Merron would be content to watch other yachtsmen endure the hardship of launching an offshore racing campaign, although Mabire disagrees: “Just because we have already raced around the world doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do it again,” he argues. “A lot has changed since my first lap of the planet as navigator and skipper on Mor Bihan in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race. Boats are faster, and the budgets have soared, but the setting hasn’t changed and that is why the call of the Southern Ocean is as strong as ever.” With a background in yacht racing project management and boat building, Mabire has extensive knowledge of the pitfalls facing a racing campaign. “The Jules Verne Trophy and the Vendée Globe are dreams which are becoming harder and harder to fulfil,” he explains. “Not for reasons of ability, experience or technical knowledge, but first and foremost for financial reasons.”

The Anglo-French double-handed team are highly competitive sailors and the quality of the racing is a vital prerequisite for the duo: “To fully enjoy the essence and pleasure of a round the world race, there must be a stiff competition on the water,” Mabire believes. “But an element of adventure and authenticity is also important,” he adds. “A round the world race with stopovers also answers the desire to discover faraway countries and different cultures. Now in its second edition, the Global Ocean Race appears to offer all of the above; the format is clear and straightforward, the course is a truly traditional round the world race course, but raced in Class40s.” For Merron, the structure of the GOR has great appeal. “I am looking forward to the fierce competition on the water and the camaraderie ashore which is prevalent in Class40 already, and this matches my view of the Global Ocean Race,” the British yachtswoman explains. “I am under no illusions about how hard the race will be both before and after the start line!”

For Mabire and Merron, a Class40 is the obvious weapon of choice: “This class has proved over time that it is more the teams than the boats and budgets which make the difference,” says Mabire. “Moreover, facing the Southern Ocean in these ‘small’ boats requires impeccable preparation, which is a real challenge,” he admits. “Racing 40-footers flat out in the Southern Ocean is a bit of a first, even if the route was opened by a few pioneers in the 2008-09 edition of the race.” Merron’s diverse racing experience has taught her the valuable differences between short-handed and fully-crewed events: “Racing Class40s double-handed should mean that the boats can be sailed almost to their full potential,” she explains. “The short-handed format - solo or double-handed - has always appealed to true aficionados of offshore racing because we have the pleasure of doing everything on board. Unlike fully-crewed races where one is more and more restricted to a single role.”

While the team’s passion for offshore racing is clear, their approach to the campaign is unique. Mabire and Merron’s choice of a Pogo S² is the second Finot-Conq Design Class40 to enter the GOR following the launch in mid-June of Groupe Picoty – the yacht of the President of the Class40 Association, Jacques Fournier, and his co-skipper, Jean-Edouard Criquioche. “In 2008, I competed in the Artemis Transat and won the Quebec-St Malo Race on a Pogo S,” recalls Mabire. “This was how I discovered the boat builders Structures and the dynamic team led by Christian Bouroullec, himself a winner of the Mini Transat. There is a certain continuity in lining up for the Global Ocean Race on a Pogo S², a new design specifically for round the world racing.”

The duo will take delivery of the hull, deck and interior structure of their Class40 during the fourth week in September at their boatyard in Barneville-Carteret, 30 miles south of Cherbourg. However, construction of the keel, rudders, rig and the entire fitting-out of the yacht will be undertaken by Mabire and Merron. With just over a year until the start of the GOR, the task is enormous. “Now that the first step has been taken by officially entering the Global Ocean Race, there is still a long way to go before the start line,” confirms Mabire. “We ‘only’ have to find a sponsor, finish building the boat, train, qualify, sail the boat in race-ready condition to the start line in Mallorca. And if there is any time left over in amongst all this…learn Spanish. We have a winter of hard graft ahead of us!”

Josh Hall, Race Director of the GOR, is delighted with this latest addition to the GOR fleet: “Halvard and Miranda confirming their participation is a fabulous endorsement of Class40 and the GOR,” says Hall. “In fact, it is totally indicative of the high-level entry enquiries we are now receiving from well-known and very experienced offshore sailors,” he continues. “The GOR is, we believe, the perfect platform for fast, competitive, round the world racing at a cost-effective level for both skippers and sponsors.” With 15 teams and ten nationalities entered, the GOR is gathering unstoppable momentum. “The eclectic mix of characters and nationalities that have already entered, or are planning to do so, will provide an intoxicating event to follow both on and off the water!” adds the Race Director. “To have an event that attracts sailors of this calibre is truly rewarding. Bienvenue à bord Halvard and Miranda!”