Back with a new Finot Conq-Koch designed boat this time, For People, Ruyant and Lagravière have a fighting chance of retaining their title but face a truly exceptional challenge from the cream of a record sized 40 strong IMOCA fleet which is lined up on the Paul Vatine basin in Le Havre awaiting Sunday’s start.
New boats, new pairs of experienced sailors, and a lot of strong outsiders, here is a run down of the IMOCA fleet at four days to go.
In fact the fight is likely to be too close to call, but most seasoned observers select four duos narrowly ahead of the pack. Charal (Jéremie Beyou and Franck Cammas), For People, MACIF Santé Prévoyance (Charlie Dalin and Pascal Bidégorry) and Paprec Arkéa (Yoann Richomme and Yann Eliès) widely reckoned to the top favourites for this 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre
Charal is the oldest of the quartet. Launched in 2022, the innovative Manuard design which has two rudders positioned in an upturned V help increase lift, is now well optimised and ready. Jérémie Beyou wants to gain his revenge on this Coffee Route race, which he last won in 2011 as co-skipper to Jean Pierre Dick. In 2019 after leading most of the first part of the race competing with Eliès, he finished third losing out in the Doldrums.
The skipper of Charal has brought in Franck Cammas this time. There is no one like him in pushing a boat and Cammas couldwin the race for the fifth time, which would be a record. The pair are in good shape and won the Azimut Lorient Agglomération Challenge last month, a 48 hour, 600 nautical miles key warm up race.
Launched only in June this year MACIF Santé Prévoyance is Charlie Dalin’s new Verdier designed IMOCA. He has brought in Pascal Bidegorry as a very experienced co-skipper and they already won the Rolex Fastnet Race just a few weeks after the launch, finishing just ahead of Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkéa.
Richomme, winner of the last two Route du Rhum races in Class40 has Yann Eliès (3 wins in the Coffee Race including two aboard an IMOCA), Theirs is one of the two Koch-Finot-Conq designs and plainly art ease when flying with her slightly less narrow lines than the Verdier boats, which may make her easier to handle offshore.
Reinforced as a precaution after the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race, the red and blue IMOCA with an innovative panoramic coach roof has not encountered the structural problems that were suffered by sistership For People during the Fastnet.
A long period back in the yard for remedial reinforcement deprived Ruyant and Lagravière of time to train, but the title-holders will quickly get to grips with their boat and push her hard…
In addition to these top four, For The Planet, Ruyant’s previous boat and so the title holding boat, is being sailed by Britain’s Sam Goodchild and designer Antoine Koch. The due are very consistent this season with three third places in the three events that preceded the Coffee Route. Goodchild comes directly from sailing more than 30,000 IMOCA miles on The Ocean Race with Holcim PRB and currently leads the IMOCA Globe series standings. Over the 5400-mile race course where the compromise between reliability and performance will be essential if you want to win, they have a lot going for them on their tried and tested boat.
Another ten contestants have a chance of making it to the podium
While the five aforementioned boats seem to have that little bit extra, there are many other pairs that are ready to make the most of any mistakes they might make. Among them in particular, there is Initiatives-Coeur (Britain’s Sam Davies and Brit/Aussie Jack Bouttell), V and B - Monbana Mayenne (Maxime Sorel and Chris Pratt), L’Occitane en Provence (Clarisse Cremer and Brit Alan Roberts) which is none other than the former Apivia, which has larger foils than the rest of the fleet thanks to the grandfather clause. Also worth watching are Teamwork.net (ex-Charal) a good all-rounder in spite of her older foils, aboard which Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion rarely make mistakes.
Maître CoQ V is also new this year has yet to really shine for different reasons. A post-Vendée Globe Verdier-designed IMOCA, she is still light on sailing and optimisation time. Skipper, Yannick Bestaven, won the last Vendée Globe but has missed a big chunk of the season after a serious biking accident. He is joined by another sailor from La Rochelle, Julien Pulvé.
Then there are the IMOCA boats which competed in The Ocean Race. Four of the five which took part in the crewed round the world race line up in Le Havre: Biotherm (Paul Meilhat-sailing with Portugal’s Mariana Lobato), Malizia Sea Explorer (Germany’s Boris Herrmann-and Brit Will Harris), but also Guyot Environnement – Water Family, which has been repaired and fitted with a new bow by her skipper Benjamin Dutreux, who sails with Corentin Horeau, winner last summer of the Solitaire du Figaro.
The fourth boat is the winner of The Ocean Race. Groupe Dubreuil is the former 11th Hour Racing, is skippered by another winner of the Solitaire, Sébastien Simon, who wants to gain his revenge in the IMOCA class. He is accompanied by the Spanish Olympic champion, Iker Martinez, who has regularly taken part in the Volvo Ocean Race.
Their first real test
Several boats arrived in Le Havre with a new configuration and will be aiming to show what can be achieved by refitting an older IMOCA. That is the case with Prysmian Group (Giancarlo Pedote and Gaston Morvan), Groupe Apicil (Damien Seguin and Laurent Bourgues), but also for Medallia (GBR’s Pip Hare and Nick Bubb), three VPLP-Verdier designs from the same generation (2015), fitted with large foils and modified hulls.
That was something that was previously successfully done with MACSF (Isabelle Joschke-Pierre Brasseur) and Fortinet-Bestwestern (Romain Attanasio-Loïs Berrehar), who will also want to show what they can do.
It is impossible to finish this look at the line-up without mentioning the most recent IMOCA to be launched. She is a futuristic gamble. STAND AS ONE skippered by Eric Bellion and Figaro racer Martin Le Pape is the first IMOCA designed by David Raison. They will get a lot of her power from the scow-shaped hull and a lightweight approach: no foils, but daggerboards, which is rather daring in 2023. The boat may well suffer when power is required, but with her generously rounded shape she could work wonders in heavy seas in the trade winds.
There are many other boats with daggerboards, which are older than this one and they will be fighting hard with each other between Le Havre and Fort-de-France. On these IMOCA boats dating back to before 2012, there are nevertheless some very talented pairs: Benjamin Ferré and Pierre Le Roy probably have the best of these IMOCAs (the former MACIF, winner of the 2012 Vendée Globe), but Tanguy Le Turquais and Félix de Navacelle will be right behind them on their Lazare. We must not forget Violette Dorange (DeVenir), the youngest competitor in the category, who is competing in her first Coffee Race, but impressed everyone in her first IMOCA race alongside her mentor, Damien Guillou, on Jean Le Cam’s old boat.