Route du Rhum - Ultimate Class form guide

Who will take the big prize between the giant multihulls?

With the Route du Rhum due to start this Sunday we are keenly looking forward to the heavyweight bout due to take place in the new Ultimate Class. Aside from including some of the top offshore skippers, the front runners in this have all been built for record breaking and include most of the world’s largest and fastest racing multihulls. This year’s Route du Rhum is providing the first ever opportunity for these boats to line up in a race.

Created to fill the void left following the demise of the ORMA 60s, the Ultimate Class is effectively based around the Irens-Cabaret designed maxi-multihulls Francis Joyon’s IDEC and Thomas Coville’s Sodebo. These giant 100+ft long trimarans are purpose-built for solo record breaking, principally on the round the world race track, so a mere seven to nine day long, 3,544 mile transatlantic race from St Malo to Guadeloupe will represent a relative skip for these long legged ocean racing machines.

Impressively nine boats are entered in the Ultimate class, the latest entry finalised only in the last 24 hours, with ocean racing legend Philippe Monnet set to race the former Ellen MacArthur B&Q/Castorama trimaran. Of these nine, five will be jockeying for line honours.

The widely held view is that there are two clear favourites in Joyon and Coville. Aside from having boats purpose-built for singlehanding, Joyon and Coville have racked up more singlehanded miles on their boats than any of the competition – Coville reckons he has sailed 75,000 miles on Sodebo. They have both spent the last years breaking and rebreaking each other’s records and as the score presently stands Joyon holds the solo round the world record while the solo west to east transatlantic and 24 hour records belong to Coville, who is hoping to prise off the round the world title off Joyon this winter post-Route du Rhum.

Coville, 42 and Joyon, 54, are virtually next door neighbours just outside of La Trinite-sur-Mer and while good friends – Coville has often sailed with Joyon in the past – are quite different characters, and, perhaps indicative of their age, each takes their own approach to their campaign.

An intriguing character for such a successful sailor, Joyon is almost Corinthian. In past campaigns he has worked virtually alone in the preparation of his boats, or with the help of family and close friends. While the competition is typically gleaming and sparkly, IDEC has a home-built DIY feel to it - if ever there was an advert that immaculate finish isn’t necessary to achieve a top performance, then IDEC is it. Strongly built, Joyon is quietly spoken, a family man and doesn’t relish the attention that has been the inevitable by-product of his exploits. In short he is something of a Tabarly character.

Conversely Coville is more gregarious and out-going, a natural communicator and very much what one would expect of a modern day ‘professional yachtsman’.

Between their boats Joyon’s IDEC is a fraction smaller all round. She is shorter – 97ft long to Sodebo’s 105ft – with a slightly smaller sail plan – the mast height of IDEC is 32m (105ft) compared to Sodebo’s 35m (115ft) and significantly when it comes to weight, IDEC has her mainsheet track on the aft beam, rather than having an extra semi-circular beam that Sodebo has. In terms of go-faster accessories IDEC is also a relatively simple boat. She has curved lifting foils in her floats but these were only added this year, while Sodebo is on to her second generation foils which have more curvature to them and a larger cord. Sodebo’s rig can also be canted to weather, like the ORMA 60s used to feature.

So while we expect these two to nose out in front in the Route du Rhum, if we had to choose our favourite for the Ultimate Class victory then it would probably be Coville, simply because of the amount of preparation he has put in and his desire to win the race seems marginally greater. Saying this Joyon cannot be discounted – few will forget the 2000 Europe 1 New Man STAR (OSTAR) when at the start he appeared decidedly the under-dog in his ORMA 60 and yet managed to beat all the shiny newer boats into Newport, Rhode Island.

Several people we have spoken believe Franck Cammas to be favourite in the Ultimate Class aboard Groupama 3, the boat in which earlier this year he managed finally to secure the Jules Verne Trophy for his mantelpiece, sailing with a crew of 10. In our hit parade we have him third.

Over the summer Groupama 3 has been modified for Cammas to race her singlehanded in the Route du Rhum. Her rig has been reduced by 4m in height, to where first reef used to be and the cockpit layout has been adapted to singlehanding with some navigation gear moved up to the cuddy on deck, where Cammas will sleep. An interesting conversation point – in the cockpit the aft grinder has been replaced with a bicycle-powered arrangement.

While Groupama 3 is the same length as Sodebo, she is substantially more powerful with a beam of 73ft compared to Sodebo’s 55. As a result manoeuvres will take Cammas longer and he is unlikely to be able to get the same percentage of performance out of his boat, but in stronger conditions – provided they look stable enough for him to let rip - Groupama 3 will have a speed advantage over her competition.

Having sailed so many miles fully crewed on board, Cammas, like Joyon and Coville, knows his boat inside out. Possibly Cammas’ only weaknesses are that while he may be a past Solitaire du Figaro winner, he has yet to win a major race in multihulls singlehanded (his best results have been third in the 1998 Route du Rhum and the 2000 Europe 1 New Man STAR). Also this year, with the Groupama team focussing on the Volvo Ocean Race, Cammas hasn’t had as much time as he would have liked to train singlehanded on Groupama 3. While Groupama 3 is today a much travelled reliable boat, Cammas is also resigned that for him, more than any of the other skippers, even minimal gear failure could put him out of the race. For example he is not taking any spare battens on board because he realises that changing one at sea would be too major a job for him on his own.

The dark horse of the five potential winners is Yann Guichard, who holds fourth place in our form guide. The French former Olympic Tornado sailor is racing Gitana XI, the former ORMA 60 which Lionel Lemonchois (racing in this year’s Route du Rhum aboard the Multi50 Prince de Bretagne) sailed to victory in 2006. Since then the boat has been lengthened to 77ft (the rig and beam configuration has remained the same) and her cockpit arrangement centralised on the main hull so that everything is within easy reach for her skipper.

In monohulls a 77 footer would stand no chance against a 105 footer, but solo offshore racing in multihulls, this is by no means as obvious. For example for the singlehanded skippers, Gitana XI will be substantially more manoeuvrable than the 100 footers. She is also built to race in the Atlantic rather than round the world: Her beam is still a shade under 60ft, making her wider than for example Sodebo, so she has more righting moment and compared to the larger boats she is also a featherweight at just 7 tonnes compared to say the 11 tonnes of IDEC or 17 of Groupama 3. Given flattish water, particularly when the wind is less than 10-15 knots, most believe that Gitana XI will outpace the bigger boats.

With his Olympic background, Guichard doesn’t have the same limitless experience racing big multihulls as those we have so far mentioned. Of the top five he also has the least singlehanded experience – the Route du Rhum will be his first singlehanded transatlantic race. However the boat was relaunched in her new configuration in 2008 and Guichard, when he has not been competing in the Extreme Sailing Series, has had two seasons to train in her. Not so widely recognised is that Guichard was also part of the shore-based routing team that Lionel Lemonchois used to win the 2006 Route du Rhum, a job Guichard also performed for Marc Guillemot, in the storm riddled 2002 race when Guillemot’s ORMA 60 was the only one not to stop or retire. So Guichard knows the way.

Sidney Gavignet and his Oman Air Majan are fifth in our hit parade. Gavignet is a well known Volvo Ocean Race sailor, his experience with the fully crewed round the world race dating back to when he sailed on the La Poste ketch in the 1993-4 Whitbread. Most recently he has raced on ABN AMRO One and Puma. He has completed two seasons in the Figaro but compared to most of his rivals lacks singlehanded experience as well as time racing big multihulls. Saying this he proved his credentials this summer when he set a new record sailing around the British Isles, competing the course in a time faster than the existing fully crewed record held by Steve Fossett and his 125ft maxi-catamaran PlayStation. Gavignet is highly experienced offshore and his Volvo know-how will certainly contribute to boat speed. He is also certainly the fittest and probably strongest of all the skippers competing in the Ultimate class.

His boat Oman Air Majan was is another of the Irens-Cabaret designed 100 footers and in her case was taken from the same moulds as Sodebo. However when she was built it was hoped she would be the first of an A-100 series of one design maxi-trimarans and so she lacks many of the go-faster features of Sodebo and even IDEC, most notably the lifting foils in her floats.

Most believe the outcome in the Ultimate class will depend on the weather, particularly at the start. Heavy weather should favour Groupama and the 100 footers. If it is lighter and the water flatter then Gitana XI will be the weapon. For this reason an esteemed French colleague of ours, who claims to have predicted the Gitana and Veolia wins four years ago, reckons that the winner will be neither Joyon nor Coville but Groupama or Gitana, according to the conditions. Given that the latest forecast has the boats sailing out into the Bay of Biscay in 40+ knot winds come Monday morning or Sunday night (depending on if you believe the US or the European models), then this would give Groupama 3 the nod.

As Gitana skipper Yann Guichard says: “I think it is the most interesting Route du Rhum because any of us could win. The strategy is really important for this one because in the last one the potential of the boats was really similar, so you could go fast but it was like one knot difference. Now the different potential is 2-3 knots downwind, so you can be at the front after the Azores and then in the Trades the boats behind you might be faster.”

The ride is also going to be a lot harder for Guichard in his more twitchy boat. “For me it is difficult to make the boat stable upwind. Downwind it is more safe. Upwind – we didn’t add any weight with the transformation, so it is 7 tonnes, like the last Route du Rhum, so it is flying.” If conditions get tough water ballast can be added in different areas on board Gitana to calm her down. But regardless, small essentials like sleep will be harder for Guichard who reckons he will get to two to three hours a day maximum in 20 minute bursts.

The rest

If there are essentially two groups of boats in the Ultimate class, then straddling them in sixth place we reckon will be Philippe Monnet and his newly christened La Boîte à Pizza. This boat was originally Ellen MacArthur’s B&Q Castorama trimaran, most recently owned and campaigned by Oman Sail.

Monnet, 51, is one of the legends of French offshore racing with a career spanning some 30 years, highlights including successfully sailing a trimaran Kriter around the world singlehanded in 1987 albeit with one stop, setting a solo record from New York to San Francisco in 1990 and a solo non-stop record westabout round the world against the prevailing winds in 2000. Aside from his lengthy offshore sailing career, Monnet is also a rally car champion, pioneered extreme skiing in France and has even been part of the French show jumping team. While he probably lacks the finesse of his competitors, he undoubtedly has experience but it is unlikely that his boat will have the same pace as the lead five.

Three more boats fill out the field in the Ultimate Class. They include the class’ only female competitor, 29 year old Servane Escoffier who is sailing Saint-Malo 2015, the Gilles Ollier-designed 73ft catamaran originally campaigned in the mid-1980s by double BOC Challenge winner Philippe Jeantot under the name Credit Agricole and then by Bruno Peyron as Ericsson. We previously dubbed Cammas as the bravest person in the Route du Rhum, but in fact it may be Servane.

In terms of her track record, Servane sailed around the world non-stop aboard Ellen MacArthur’s former Kingfisher Open 60 in the last Barcelona World Race, and came second in the 50ft monohull class in the 2006 Route du Rhum. She comes from one of France’s most prolific sailing families - niece of Franck-Yves Escoffier who is one of the favourites for the Multi50 class win this year, while her father Bob is a past competitor and cousin Kevin is on Banque Populaire’s sailing team.

Another piece of multihull history is also taking part in the Ultimate class. Bertrand Quentin has lovingly restored Cote d’Or II, the red 80ft tri-foiler that French legend Eric Tabarly campaigned in the mid-1980s. Albeit with a newer looking rig, the boat has also its original features such as the narrow central cockpit in the main hull with a stainless steel coffee grinder mounted in the coaming each side. If our memory serves us correctly then part of Cote d’Or II’s main hull was a hacked up part of Tabarly’s previous foiler trimaran Paul Ricard.

Last but not least in our form guide is Gilles Lamiré who is competing in the 1988 generation ORMA 60 Defi Cancale. As Elf Aquitaine III, this was designer/builder Gilles Ollier’s first of two attempts at conceiving an ORMA 60 trimaran. In its day it had successes most significant being victory in the 1990 TwoStar when she campaigned by Jean Maurel, by coincidence Race Director of this year’s Route du Rhum, and Michel Desjoyeaux.

One advantage that skippers in the Ultimate class will have over others in the Route du Rhum is that they will be able to use routing.