The story began at the finish of the last Coffee Race. Gilles Lamiré left his Ocean Fifty in Fort-de-France and when he came back to France he met Hervé Jean-Marie, who was on holiday, in Cancale. Hervé sails on a Formule 18 in Martinique, but ocean racing attracted him. Gilles needed some crewmen during the winter to take partners out around the islands and race in the RORC Caribbean 600. “He invited me aboard and asked me to set up a small team of locals from Martinique to offer logistical support. I took my fellow crewman from the F18 with me and contacted Jean-Yves, who is a specialist in traditional sailing and races on the local Yoles, Gommiers and Bébé-yoles,” explained Hervé.
The trimaran was prepared. There were trips with partners and training sessions. Then, there was a delivery trip to Antigua and another chance meeting, this time with Maxime Sorel, who was doing a little job there for Gilles Lamiré. “During the ten-day adventure, we built up a friendship with Max. He invited us to sail on the IMOCA that he was launching in Concarneau. Looking back, everything slotted into place just like that and we got everything together by meeting people who told us it could be done, even by us,” remembered Jean-Yves.
Distant horizons
What prevented the pair from jumping in earlier? They both had their captain 200 ticket and skippered boats now and then. Both enjoyed trail biking “to test ourselves physically and mentally.” It remained on their minds, but there was some hesitation between the dream and the reality of island life, their daily work and all the encounters with people who made it look easy encouraging them to go for it. “The hardest part was getting going,” said Hervé. Was ocean racing just something for people from mainland France or from Guadeloupe, who were used to seeing the Route du Rhum finish there since 1978? “It was all very far away for us, as no major race had finished in Martinique before the Coffee Race in 2021. At the finish, the excitement quickly drops off. It is not like the start with ten days in the village in Le Havre with the pressure building and where it all comes alive,” explained Jean-Yves in the Paul Vatine dock.
The proof was that when they set up their association and started to contact local businesses, the pitch of a crew from Martinique competing in a race that finished there, did not really work. Sponsors were not impressed, “as there is no equivalent in terms of cost benefit analysis,” said Jean-Yves. “Here, people get very enthusiastic about traditional sailing. It’s part of the identity of the island and you can get up to 100,000 people – all sorts of people and of all ages – who come to see the conclusion of the championship down on the beach. Ocean racing is very different and not yet part of our heritage.”
Leaping in
They did find their first partners in early 2023, the Martinique Tourist Board, who gave them some funding in the spring and then they gradually picked up some money here and there with promises of donations. As chartering a scow seemed to be beyond their means, Hervé and Jean-Yves looked at an older generation Class40. They got to know Florian Guéguen, who had a 2011 Manuard designed boat and he took them out in the Défi Atlantique, the new race on the class calendar between La Rochelle and the Azores. The arrival of a real sponsor, the Tchalian firm, which specialises in stainless steel hardware in Martinique, was a giant step forward in June. At the last moment, Hervé and Jean-Yves signed up to charter the boat. They did their ISAF training course just before the summer, but they only had a month to carry out their qualifier in early September, when they picked up the boat. “We did a lot of sailing from Saint-Malo. It was all new to us, tides, currents, the lock gates… We had to get used to all that.”
Now, Martinique Tchalian is moored up in Le Havre with the 43 other Class40 boats that will be setting sail on Sunday. It looks like being a fairly rough start leading the two transatlantic rookies to be cautious: “We haven’t given ourselves any goal in terms of our final position. This is an adventure and it will take some time for us to settle in. We’ll be very careful with the gear, because we really want to finish. The hard part is going to be the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. We’re going to have to tighten our belts and grin and bear it,” said Jean-Yves.
The two friends, who would like to train youngsters after they finish, are well aware that there is a lot riding on their shoulders. “I don’t know how many people dream of ocean racing in Martinique, but this is inter-generational,” according to Hervé. “I have often heard people on the pontoons say that they would have liked to have taken that step, but they never dared.” One thing is certain. When the name of Martinique Tchalian is announced over the VHF, when she passes Diamant Rock right in front of the village of Sainte Luce, where Jean-Yves lives, the dream will become reality and the celebrations can begin. “But this is a long term affair. Lorient wasn’t built in two years and it is going to take other Coffee Race finishes in Martinique for the wheels to keep spinning.”
The history books will state however that it was Hervé Jean-Marie and Jean-Yves Aglae who started the ball rolling.