The Imoca are 60-foot Open monohull yachts mainly intended to race in the Vendée Globe. Find here the latest news and investigations from Tip & Shaft on the subject.
The Saem Vendée held a press conference last Monday in Les Sables d’Olonne to announce the list of 28 candidates who, to date, have finalized their application for the Vendée Globe 2024 and also to announce the appointment of Hubert Lemonnier as Race Director of the Round the World Race. Tip & Shaft spoke with Lemonnier.
Designed by Antoine Koch and the Finot-Conq studio, Thomas Ruyant’s Imoca For People was launched last Thursday in Lorient. It carries the colors of both Advens and Leyton, who are combined in a twinned project which links Ruyant the winner of the Route du Rhum 2022 with the Briton Sam Goodchild. Tip & Shaft tells you more.
On Friday February 17th Banque Populaire announced their withdrawal from the Vendée Globe 2024, as a result of the “Clarisse Crémer affair”. Tip & Shaft has tried to find out more about the reasons for this decision.
Paprec Arkéa will be launched on February 22 in Lorient. It was designed by Antoine Koch and the Finot-Conq studio as was the new Imoca for Thomas Ruyant, launched in March. And so this is a timely opportunity for Tip & Shaft to discuss with the engineer/architect Koch.
Between the “Clarisse Crémer affair” and The Ocean Race, Imoca is top of the news agendas at the moment and so a good time for for Tip & Shaft to speak with the president of the class, Antoine Mermod.
Banque Populaire announced on Thursday noon that they have been “forced to change skipper” for the next Vendée Globe thereby confirming the information revealed a few minutes earlier by Clarisse Crémer. Their decision, motivated by the Cremer having fallen behind in the race for qualifying miles due to her maternity plus the “inflexibility” of the organization of the Vendée Globe despite the sponsor’s requests has provoked a big reaction. Tip & Shaft tells you more.
Britain’s Phil Sharp announced this week that he will have the third Sam Manuard designed IMOCA to be built by Black Pepper Yachts. One of the most successful Class40 skippers of recent years, is also a highly talented mechanical engineer. With his OceansLab he plans to highlight the hydrogen fuel cell technology system which he co-invented and is presently commercialising for the leisure and commercial marine sectors.
At the end of the first leg of The Ocean Race between Alicante and Cape Verde (see the tracker), Tip & Shaft spoke with Sébastien Simon (32), crew member of Guyot Environnement-Team Europe which he will now join for the second stage towards Cape Town.
The start of The Ocean Race which will be sailed in Imocas for the first time (*) is set to be on January 15 from Alicante for a first leg heading to Cape Verde. As well as the actual sporting challenge there is a big logistical challenge for the teams involved, particularly as four of them were on the Route du Rhum during November. Here Tip & Shaft assess the human, technical and financial resources required to deal with these challenges.
This year has been busy for Paul Meilhat. Between the build of his new Imoca Biotherm (sistership of LinkedOut) at Persico Marine then with minimal preparation for the Route du Rhum-Destination and the race itself in which he finished in sixth place, it has been a full on 2022. And it’s far from over as the French skipper flies to Alicante on Saturday to start getting ready for The Ocean Race which starts on January 15. Even so, he still found the time to answer questions from Tip & Shaft.
As before every major event, Tip & Shaft has invited a panel of experts to analyse the line-up for the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe which starts on 6th November. In this first part dedicated to the Imoca and Ocean Fifty competitors, we talked to Antoine Mermod, the president of the Imoca class, Jeanne Grégoire, head of the Pôle Finistère Ocean Racing training centre, Daniel Souben, trainer in La Trinité-sur-mer for Orlabay, the sailors, Yann Eliès, Christopher Pratt and Vincent Riou, as well as Jacques Guyader, journalist with Ouest-France.
On Monday in his hometown of Port-la-Forêt, Jean Le Cam unveiled his 2024 Vendée Globe project. It will feature a brand new boat with daggerboards designed by David Raison and he will be backed by the Finistère department (region), Armor-lux and a group of partners for a budget totalling 4 million euros over 4 years. Tip & Shaft tells you how this project came about.
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