Home - Sailing World Blogs - Round the World in a One-Design?

Round the World in a One-Design?

Posted 1 year ago

Round the World in a One-Design?
The SolOceans 52-foot prototype, designed by French Naval Architects Finot-Conq, is into the first week of its around-the-world reconnaissance tour. The SolOceans project, a one-design monohull for shorthanded ocean racing, is aimed at opening up this expensive and predominantly French niche of sailing to the Anglo-Saxon world by leveling the playing field. Using boat building and design expertise from the Northern French Region of Lower Normandy, Yves Grivobal, originator of the Trophée Clairefontaine professional catamaran event, has built a prototype, promoted via a primary media sponsor, and sent it off for a around-the-world sail with the aim of testing and showcasing both the boat and course. Skippers would enter into a two-part around-the-world race, starting in Caen, France, stopping over in Wellington, New Zealand, and then racing back to France. The main concepts behind the project are the creation of identical boats—which will reduce both the cost and effort involved in getting involved the race and hopefully make for a more competitive event—and the development of an international field of sailors. This concept of international round-the-world one-design has been pitched before, most recently by Yves Parlier, the innovative French offshore sailor. Parlier’s 80-foot one-design trimaran program held some interest. “I really think one-design is the solution,” said Parlier in a telephone interview before heading off to join the Groupama Jules Verne effort. “But it is really hard to get all the sponsors, owners, and organizers to agree. SolOceans is a still a prototype so we'll see.” The four crew—Charles Caudrelier, skipper, Liz Wardley, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec—are sailing a pre-preg carbon boat built at the JMV (France) shipyard. It includes many features found in the IMOCA 60s racing in the Vendée Globe and Barcelona World Race: a 40-degree canting keel, twin daggerboards, water ballast, and a rotating mast. The boat is aimed toward a perceived slot between the Class 40s and the IMOCA 60s, providing a progressive step for solo sailors wanting to move up and a place to go for those solo sailors with tighter budgets. After trying, and failing to create a program similar to the World Sailing League pitched by Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard, Griboval analyzed what the root of the failure was. Despite being French, he couldn't deny that the multihulls were primarily a French phenomenon. In order to break the mold, he decided to create an event using monohulls, with English as the official language; he’s planning to reserve 50 percent of boat sales for non-French sailors. “The goal is to have at least one boat,” he says, “out of the 12 to 15 to be built, from the major sailing enthusiast markets: Australia, New Zealand, United States, England, Germany, etc.” It is so important to have a mix of nationalities, Griboval wants to work to find sponsors, and provide marketing for those Anglos in need, to make up as diverse an entry list as possible. To tempt international participants further, media coverage is guaranteed by Eurosports after that company’s 30-percent investment into SailingOne. The formula of lower fixed costs ($1,700,000 for a two-year program, boat included), guaranteed international media coverage, and equal footing has created a demand greater than building capacity according to SailingOne. The hope is that Olympic and professional sailors will be able to attract international sponsors to move up from Minis (6.50 meters) and Figaros (Benetau One-Designs) or across from the Volvo or America’s Cup and test their sailing skills in a true grand-prix class. Griboval hopes to send the first SolOceans fleet on its way to New Zealand on Oct. 25, 2009. For more information on this concept, www.soloceans.com Full Story »

Comments are currently disabled