Ocean Racing Magazine - #2 - April & May 2007 - (Page 10)

NEWS Maud Fontenoy’s great adventure On board the boat, which holds the record for sailing single-handed around the world “the wrong way”, VDH’s former Adrien, now called L’Oréal Paris, the young French yachtswoman Maud Fontenoy completed her voyage around the southern hemisphere in 150 days, in spite of dismasting. Looking beyond the controversy concerning her precise achievement and the incredible media frenzy around the yachtswoman, let us congratulate her on her determination to complete this personal challenge, coming after her transatlantic and transpacific rowing crossings, feats, which revealed her name to the general public. It is true that the young lady’s voyage will not be ratified as an official sporting performance, but completing such an adventure is hardly something any Tom, Dick or Harry could do. The 9.50 Class filling the gap Jean-Marie Vidal, the winner of the Solitaire du Figaro in 1987 and successful Mini ©FoXTech racer, is behind the creation of a new class that is currently being drawn up. He explained to us the basic ideas: "We started work on this project last year, with a certain number of racers coming from the Mini and 40-footers, not being able to find the formula they are looking for… The 6.50 requires quite a lot of funds, but is almost exclusively devoted to pure racing, the 40-footers need a lot of money, as you are straight up to 280,000 Euros. So in the mid-term, we have been setting up a box rule attempting to limit the costs (no carbon, no swing keel etc). It is true that there are the 30’ Open rules, but that is not what we were thinking of, because they are not very restrictive and can give rise to some extreme prototypes, which are very expensive. Then there is the fact that some people tell us that the 9.50 rules duplicate the Figaro rules, which is in my opinion not the case, as one design boats involve a very particular process, which does not necessarily suit amateur racers." For the sporting schedule, Jean-Marie is trying to favour return races (with short-handed crews) obviously to keep things simple: "I would like to see a return race Lorient – Dublin, a Dieppe – Scotland or Norway, a Sète or MarseillesAlgiers… We’re putting out our feelers in those places and have someone based in England too." The founder of the project says he is surprised by the reaction he has had from designers, and we can add that François Lucas, Julien Marin, the Bat’karé team, the YORC yard (see new products), Charles Bertrand (FoX Tech, our illustration) and Pierre Rolland with the 9.50 class version of his Bongo are already involved. We’ll be watching with interest… ©R. Bouhet/AFP There’s no stopping Bernard Stamm "Right, I’m off, see you at the finish,"… That could be what Bernard Stamm said to his “rivals” at the start of each leg of the Velux 5 Oceans! The formidable Swiss Breton sailor, who has been lacking any serious opponents since Alex Thomson and Mike Golding were forced to retire, when the former lost his boat and the latter dismasted (how could we forget Ecover losing her rig just after picking up the ill-fated skipper of Hugo Boss?), has nevertheless given it his all in a mad dash. His 60-foot Cheminées Poujoulat has shown what a great performer she is, and although he was not spared the onslaught of stormy weather, Bernard has achieved countless successes in terms of his weather strategy. If you add to that his natural tendency to put his foot down, you end up with a 1000-mile lead over Kojiro Shiraishi at the finish in Fremantle, and the very same Shiraishi was left 3000 miles behind this time in the second leg. A clear, clean, faultless performance. There is no real threat facing Stamm, who is sailing his final race on board his loyal Rolland designed boat built by himself, as when he finishes back in Europe (and claims one more victory) he will receive the former VirbacPaprec, the first generation Farr design bought from Jean-Pierre Dick. ©OnEdition Lequin and Moreau showing size doesn’t matter Benoît Lequin and Pierre-Yves Moreau, successful Mini racers, who have also shone in the Figaro, and on the local ORMA circuit and the Oops Cup, are currently putting the final touches to their future transatlantic racer in Lorient… which is quite simply a 20-foot catamaran. The project, called Ocean Express – Archi factory, is a platform fitted with rigid seats from which the two crewmen will be able to manoeuvre and “live”. The floats come from the moulds of Pierre Rolland’s Bandit (series trimaran), and the craft has also benefited from the collaboration of Guillaume Verdier, who checked over the profiles of the daggerboards and calculated the structural data. Pierre-Yves and Benoît will attempt to smash the record held by the Italians, Gancia and Miceli (13 days and 14 hours, ratified by the WSSRC) and are due to launch their boat in June. Based on a period of reflection by the two men, the catamaran is likely to be fitted with devices, such as an airbag at the masthead, a watertight rig thanks to the halyards passing uniquely up the outside. Moreover, a rod, which can be used as a lever is due to be tested before the start, in order to make it easier to right the multihull, if she capsizes. We can look forward to a great adventure, and will keep you informed of what happens. Ocean Racing - april 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ocean Racing Magazine - #2 - April & May 2007

Contents
What they said
News
Portfolio
Report
Records
America's Cup
Sponsoring
Ocean Planet
Class 40
Imoca
New products
Launch
Lab
Portrait
Practical tips
Profession
Mini Class
Design
Thirty years on
New launches
Equipment
Chronicle

Ocean Racing Magazine - #2 - April & May 2007

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