SolOceans

“This is the first time in the history of offshore racing that an oceanic one-design will be tested on an round-the-world, two years before the first race in which it is intended to take part” explains Yvan Griboval, CEO of SailingOne, Designer and Race Organiser of the SolOceans. “We feel that it is important to carry out this round-the-world, both to test the Veolia Oceans^® one-design in real ocean-going sailing conditions on hostile oceans and to prepare our coordination and media coverage teams for what the event will actually be like. Technically, we have made a few audacious choices, such as not equipping the Veolia Oceans^® with a substitute source of energy for the engine, and we must endorse this option which excludes the use of solar or wind turbine energy. We have voluntarily reduced the number of sails to cut the costs for owners and sponsors. There again, we will need to endorse this choice before confirming it in the rules of the Veolia Oceans^® one-design Class. Moreover, we will only begin drafting class rules following the stopover in Wellington, when we will be able to use the information sent to us by the Bostik team. Theoretically, we do not plan any stopover between Caen and Wellington. However, we will not deny ourselves a temporary stop, if necessary. During the SolOceans race stopovers will be allowed, as made provision for in the Notice of Race, published on 30 November 2007”.

For this first leg, leaving from Lower Normandy on the 16^th of December in the early afternoon, Charles Caudrelier will be accompanied by three sailors: Liz Wardley, who is English and native of Papua, and the French sailors, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec. Liz Wardley has experience of the hostile oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, thanks to a victory in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart (1999) and a crew-manned round-the-world tour in the Volvo Ocean Race (2001-2002). Liz Wardley will be familiar with New Zealand when she gets there, since she helped build a Mini Transat 6.50 prototype there. For Charles Caudrelier, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec, it will be their first time in the Great South, since they have never sailed to New Zealand through the Indian Ocean.

Erwan Lebec, a loyal SailingOne colleague, former preparateur of Charles Caudrelier's Figaro Bénéteau one-design, Bostik, has worked on perfecting the deck plan of the Veolia Oceans^® one-design and he has given over part of his equipment to it since early last summer. Erwan Lebec is the Boat Captain in charge of the one-design. Erwan Tabarly is combining his experience of the Figaro Bénéteau one-design, a class in which he has accumulated successes, with his experience of the IMOCA 60 Class. Most important, Erwan Tabarly was the skipper of the first Veolia Oceans^® one-design during the whole test phase and at this time, he is the one who is the most familiar with the oceanic one-design, along with Erwan Lebec. The two Erwans, as well as Liz Wardley, who also sailed on board her during the test phase and who worked on her preparation in Caen, will help Charles Caudrelier get used to his new Bostik. Charles sailed the Atlantic on board Safran, Marc Guillemot's 60 feet IMOCA, in the Transat Jacques Vabre (second place), while the Veolia Oceans^® one-design was tested in the English Channel.

Let us recall that the SolOceans is the first single-handed oceanic round-the-world race sailed on equal footing on totally identical sixteen-metre (52.5feet) high-tech one-design monohulls: the Veolia Oceans^®. This class has been named Veolia Oceans^® after the main sponsor of the SolOceans race, Veolia Environmental Services. The first SolOceans race will start on 25^th of October 2009, from the town of Caen-la-mer and will stopover in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It will then return to Lower Normandy, to Cherbourg-Octeville where the final ranking of this round-the-world, via the three Capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin, Horn) will be made.

The start of Bostik's first leg of the SolOceans round-the-world Reconnaissance Tour, is set for Sunday, 16 December, leaving from Caen-la-mer and Ouistreham (Lower Normandy) for Wellington (New Zealand), rounding the capes of Good Hope (South Africa) and Leeuwin (Australia). The second leg will be from Wellington to Cherbourg-Octeville (Lower Normandy), by Cape Horn (South America). During the stopover, Liz Wardley and Erwan Tabarly will hand over their places to two other sailors invited by SailingOne in agreement with Charles Caudrelier. Each leg will take between 50 to 55 days of sailing.

Next Sunday, the weather forecast promises the continuation of the current anticyclone conditions. This will mean a fair wind and sun with wintery temperatures. These conditions will continue in the following days and will allow the Bostik crew to leave Europe in its wake quickly. They will be able to sail across the formidable Bay of Biscay in dream conditions for this time of year. In short, everything looks set for a start in excellent conditions.


Programme for 16th December:

10:30: Arrival of the crew aboard Bostik moored on the Normandy Quay in the New Basin in Caen.

11:00: Cast off from Caen and sail down the Caen canal to the sea bound for the Ouistreham lock.

12:30: Arrival in Ouistreham and entry into the lock.

13:15: Exit from the Ouistreham lock towards the starting line.

14:00: Official starting gun fired by Serge Even, President of the Ligue de Voile de Basse-Normandie (Sailing League of Lower Normandy), with the help of the Société des Régates de Caen Ouistreham (SRCO - Caen Ouistreham Regatta Society), on a starting line comprised of a regatta buoy and a Race Committee Boat.

15:00: Return to the lock for the spectator boats.