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SolOceans one-design

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Origins of the SolOceans one-design class

Since 2005, Michel Desjoyeaux has been involved in the creation and then the specifications for the first one-design monohull for ocean racing – the SolOceans one-design (16 meters / 52.5 feet long) – together with Loïck Peyron, backed by the French Sailing Federation, and in conjunction with Jean-Marie Finot – Pascal Conq and Associates, designers of the one-design class after their four wins in the Vendée Globe. Drafted before the IMOCA 60 prototypes of the 2008 Vendée Globe, the SolOceans was completed after the 2008 generation, with a hull and appendages that are state-of-the-art.

From the outset, Michel Desjoyeaux has kept close watch over the development of the new concept of racing yacht, checking all the technical options without exception and drawing from all the lessons learnt during a test campaign covering more than 33,000 nautical miles carried out in France, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, USA, Italy, Malta, etc., in an approach that to date is unprecedented.

 

Michel Desjoyeaux summarises the simple concept behind the SolOceans one-design as follows: “The idea is to create an intermediate class in international single-handed ocean racing, i.e. a genuine alternative in technical, sporting and financial terms between the Mini 6.50, Figaro Bénéteau and Class40 on the one hand, and the IMOCA 60 at the high end”.

The French Sailing Federation supports the project, as summarized by Jean-Pierre Champion, its President: “An intermediate ocean racing class ensures the activity of the smaller classes by providing an outlet for the athletes that sail them. It also improves access to the prototype class at the high end of the racing world. The SolOceans class is a major vector for the sustainable development of ocean racing, a discipline in which France excels. That is why the Federation firmly supports it”.

 

The SolOceans offers a technical, sporting and financial alternative in an economic age in which new forms of racing need to be invented. It is based on a principle of sustainable operation in the world of international professional sailing. The SolOceans one-design is a discipline of the future for international single-handed ocean racing.

 

The SolOceans class also provides an opportunity for ship-owner partners and sponsors of sailors in the Figaro class, as well as the best Mini and the most talented Class40 skippers – as well as sailors from other fields of international sports sailing – an upgrade at controlled costs to wider horizons, all around the world, and far greater media exposure.

The initiator of the project has backed the concept of a SolOceans one-design class with initial funds in 2005 – 2006, and then assuming the costs until 2011, investing more than €5m to produce the tooling for one-design production, the first prototype and the test campaign, then the hulls decked and fully-structured, followed by number two and three in the series.

 

In November 2011, the spec was transferred to Michel Desjoyeaux and his teams at Mer Agitée and Mer Forte, who are now developing the concept.

 

 

Creation of the Mer Oceans Company

Michel Desjoyeaux will be managing the technical issues and waterborne operations, as well as the sports calendar for the SolOceans One-design Class. Yvan Griboval will be in charge of marketing and communication.

Michel Desjoyeaux, left, and Yvan Griboval have worked together from the outset, on 2 December 2005, on the design and development of the SolOceans One-design Class. They have now become joint partners in the Mer Oceans Company, each with their proven skills, to develop the series production, sports calendar, marketing, communication and promotion of the SolOceans One-design Class.

 

Photo Jean-Marie Liot / SailingOne

 

 

The Mer Oceans Company is being set up as a joint venture (50/50) by and between Michel Desjoyeaux (Mer Agitée – Mer Forte) and SailingOne (Yvan Griboval).

 

The Mer Oceans Company will develop and market, directly or indirectly, the SolOceans One-design series (16 meters / 52 feet).

 

Mer Oceans will manage this intermediate class of the International Single-Handed Ocean Sailing Sector, between the Mini 6.50 / Figaro Bénéteau / Class 40 series on the one hand, and the IMOCA 60 prototype class on the other.

 

The SolOceans One-design Class therefore represents an effective alternative in technical, sports and financial terms to the prototypes that up to now have caused the success of offshore races, particularly in single-handed and double-handed round-the-world racing.

 

The international sport activities of the SolOceans One-design class are scheduled to begin in July 2013 with a first round of competitions lasting three years.

 

The VELUX 5 OCEANS single-handed round-the-world race with stopovers – probably starting and finishing in France – will be the highlight of the first three-year programme, which will also include the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Route du Rhum, the TWOSTAR and various major intermediate competitions such as the Rolex Fastnet Race or the Record SNSM.

 

International competitions specifically reserved for the SolOceans One-design Class may also be developed to enhance the structure of the sports calendar for this ocean-going series of sailing boats.

 

Contact: Denis Juhel – djuhel@soloceans.com

 

 

 

In 2014 the ninth edition of the 5 OCEANS will be the first solo race around the world with equal chances

 

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (Clipper Ventures) and Yvan Griboval (SailingOne) took advantage of the VELUX 5 OCEANS prizegiving ceremony on Friday 3rd of June at La Rochelle (France) to officially welcome the SolOceans One Design Class at the start of the ninth edition of the single-handed race around the world in several legs, in the autumn of 2014.

Photo Ainhoa Sanchez / VELUX 5 OCEANS

 

 

The Ultimate Solo Challenge set to welcome the SolOceans One Design Class alongside the Eco 60 Class

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, President of Clipper Ventures who organised the VELUX 5 OCEANS, confirmed that the ninth edition in 2014-15 will welcome not only the successful Eco 60 Class, which has shown its durability during the 2010-11 race, but will also welcome the SolOceans One Design Class. It will allow sailors, both men and women, to race solo around the world on a level playing field. Thanks to its reasonable and controlled budgets, a good number of skippers and sponsors of all nationalities will therefore be able to take each other on using the same weapons in this unique adventure around the world.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the British sailing legend, remains without doubt the great pioneer of international offshore racing. He was the first man to complete a non-stop solo circumnavigation (1968-69). 42 years later, innovating once again, Sir Robin continues his work as a pioneer and leaves his indelible mark in the history of international offshore racing. In 1982, 13 years after his unbelievable exploits on his 32 foot boat, Sir Robin created the first true solo race around the world (the BOC Challenge which has now become the VELUX 5 OCEANS) and competed on Open 40, 50 and 60 foot monohulls, which gave birth to the IMOCA 60, 50 and the Class 40.

 

Four years ago, Sir Robin created the Eco 60 Class in response to the difficulties encountered by international skippers faced with budget restrictions with sponsors. It gave a new lease of life to the old, but reliable and proven, prototypes. It is a novel concept of sustainable development in the world of ocean sailing. And despite a small field of entries, the 2010-11 VELUX 5 OCEANS has proven that the Eco 60 Class can produce exciting and fast top-level racing.

 

Today, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston goes even further in his efforts to open up racing solo around the world to aspiring solo skippers. He welcomes the SolOceans One Design Class on the start line of the 5 OCEANS 2014-15 alongside the Eco 60 Class, believing the lighter, smaller 52.5-foot machines will complement the larger Eco 60s.

 

The SolOceans Class is a 52.5 foot high-tech carbon one-design yacht (16 meters), which has been designed by Jean-Marie Finot and Pascal Conq, with Michel Desjoyeaux as Technical Consultant of the Class. This monohull, imagined by Yvan Griboval (SailingOne), was conceived and developed between 2006 and 2010, thanks to the feedback provided by 25 leading offshore skippers who sailed onboard the first boat during the course of the 30,000 nautical miles covered in its test circumnavigation of the planet.

 

“The 5 OCEANS has an incredible 29 year heritage. It is the oldest solo race around the world still in existence today” said Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. “Like the America’s Cup and the Whitbread (which became the Volvo Ocean Race), we are adapting to the global economic environment in evolving the type of boat we accept to compete. In the America’s Cup, the J Class took the place of the 12M JI, which then became the America Class and now the AC72 catamarans. The Whitbread-Volvo Ocean Race also adapted itself in changing its classes over time. From our side, we innovated with the Eco 60 Class. We started this approach to favour more modest budgets from 2005, even before the financial crisis hit in the summer of 2008. We are now taking this strategy even further in launching this new category of high tech round the world boats in collaboration with Yvan Griboval (SailingOne) and Jean-Pierre Champion (FFVoile).”

 

“The SolOceans One Design Class will offer skippers and their sponsors a fantastic opportunity to race around the world on an equal footing, increasing further the emotional intensity of the adventure to the benefit of the general public.” explains Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

 

Jean-Pierre Champion, President of the French Sailing Federation (FFVoile) has achieved one of his major objectives for international offshore racing: “I am delighted that the 5 OCEANS is opening its start line to the SolOceans One Design Class. It will offer young skippers coming out of our centres of excellence of training for solo offshore racing a future thanks to a series of high tech, one design boats which are financially, technically and competitively accessible.”

“One design racing allows costs to be controlled. The Figaro Class has shown this each season. It is a philosophy that our federation encourages. It allows not only young racers to build their sporting career, but equally for small-medium size companies to engage sustainably in our sport with a real visibility on budget. In these times of economic crisis, this element takes on even more significance. The 5 OCEANS therefore has the support of the FFVoile in this approach which marks a major evolution in oceanic racing.”

Yvan Griboval, President of SailingOne, creator of the SolOceans Class, has also achieved an important objective: “After five years of hard work and more than €4.5 million invested, the integration of the SolOceans One Design Class to the prestigious 5 OCEANS is a recognition which opens a new page in international offshore sailing, in the tradition of great maritime adventures which Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has maintained since his first circumnavigation in 1968. We are proud to participate in this new approach for the future. It is the culmination of an immense amount of work.”

“The offshore sailor I was and the businessman that I have become can only rejoice that today there is the possibility to offer young skippers and small companies the opportunity to access the highest sporting level: competition on a level playing field on the one hand and one of the hardest ocean routes in the world on the other. Three boats of the SolOceans One Design Class are already built. Construction will recommence again at the start of next year to ensure that five to eight boats are on the start line of the 5 OCEANS 2014-15.”

In its 29-year history the 5 OCEANS race has given rise to some of the world’s most respected solo sailors including Philippe Jeantot, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, Isabelle Autissier, Christophe Auguin, Giovanni Soldini, Mike Golding and Bernard Stamm, as well as welcoming international skippers from all corners of the globe. Highlights of the 2010-11 edition include the closest ever finish in solo ocean racing history, with just 40 seconds separating Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski and Chris Stanmore-Major at the end of 7,000 miles of racing through the Southern Ocean from Wellington (New Zealand) to Punta del Este (Uruguay). Brad Van Liew became the first American to race round Cape Horn solo three times and the first non-European to win the class for 60 footers, while Gutek became the first Pole to race solo around the world.

 

In total, of the 128 people who have set off on this solo circumnavigation of the world, only 77 finished and two who never returned. During the eighth edition, which just finished, 80% of the competitors finished the route – a record for solo round the world racing.

 

The route and the host ports for the 2014 edition of the 5 OCEANS will be announced at a later date.

 

Final rigging for the SolOceans One-design class

The one-design rigging, specially designed for oceanic races and single-handed round-the-worlds, has now been defined down to the smallest details. The mast – a fixed mast with single spreaders – has been ordered from Beat Wildberger (Alucarbon). This is the last modification before the publication of the final list for the SolOceans One-design class and the first draft of the class rules, at the end of August 2010. The SolOceans One-design rigging will lose more than eighty kilos in weight. The general silhouette will be slimmer thanks to higher stay fastening points on the mast than were initially on the wing mast. Although the mainsail area does not change (115 m2), that of the forward sails has been revised upwards. Therefore, the SolOceans One-design will be perfectly versatile and high-performing in all sailing trims and all types of wind, thanks to the harmony of the new sail plan designed by Michel Desjoyeaux, Pascal Conq (Groupe Finot and Associates) and Yann Régniau (North Sails). Another new feature, dear to Loïck Peyron, who introduced it, the choice of sail makers for the SolOceans One-designs will be left to the racers. In addition to offers by North Sails France, other offers are already available with Incidence and Quantum.

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