Chirs Sayer did finished third of the Mini-Transat 1999, just behind Sébastien Magnen (double winner and yacht designer) and Pierre-Yves Moreau. Now, he is going to be back in France to enter again in the single handed transatlantic race from La Rochelle to Brazil which will start in september 2003. With his new mini and his great experience, no doubt he will be between the favourite skippers of the race on the starting line. And may be the first non french skipper to take it. Mail interview.
1. Chris, did you follow the Transat 650 2001 and what do you think about this edition (the winner : Yannick Bestaven ; the design of Aquarelle.com : Magnen-Nivelt ; the course : to Brazil) ?
I did follow the mini and would have liked to have been there. It was very good to see so many familiar faces and I was very happy to see Yannick, Arnaud, Olivier and all the competitors do so well. It is very hard from down here to tell how the designs of the new boats have changed. The new course to Brazil does not change much as far as the sailing goes as far as I can see.
2. You are building a new mini 650 : Can you describe this new design by Brett Bakewell-White ? Wide, light, powerfull ? And which are her main differences from your previous mini ?
Yes it is wide light and powerful. The main difference between this boat and Navman is the building materials. Check out www.bakewell-white.com.
3. Why do you want to enter again in the mini after a third place in 1999 and which are your offshore projects after this new one ?
My dream since I was a young lad has been to campaign an Open 60 in the around the world races. When I got back to NZ in 2000 I tried to find a main sponsor but I have been unable to do so (even for the new mini). The response I got from the big corporate companies was ; Chris Sayer, who is he ? Mini Transat, what is that ? Third, well that is not very good is it ? So I had a choice, either to let the dream die or battle on. So after the 2003 mini it is anybodies guess what I will be up to. Aiming for the 2005 mini if we come 20th ?
We all know offshore racing multihulls with foils such as french ORMA trimarans (18 meters long), offshore speed multihulls such as the Hydroptère, and inshore foilers such as the TriFoiler of new flying Mothes. Here is a new concept for… a cruising monohull. The eXplorius.
This is the complete mail interview of the manager of the Volvo Ocean Race made for a report about the next event in the three-monthly french magazine Course Au Large. Glenn Bourke answers few questions about the new rules, the number of entries, the place and the budget of this race in world of round the world yacht races.
Russell Bowler, president of Farr Design, was questions by mail for a paper about the next Volvo Ocean Race published in the three-monthly french magazine Course Au Large. Here are his answers.
After the arrival of winner Groupama (Camma/S.Ravussin) at 2053hrs GMT on Sunday 18th November, 3 hours and 32 minutes later battle-weary Kingfisher-Foncia (Gautier/MacArthur), arrived at 1225hrs GMT in the port of Bahia, Brazil. They had raced the 5188.6m course from Le Havre, France in 14 days, 12 hrs, 25 mins & 10 seconds.
451.2 nautical miles in 24 hours is the new benchmark for a Volvo Ocean 60. Between 17.48hrs GMT on Saturday 17th November and the same time on Sunday 18th(yesterday), Team News Corp achieved an average speed of 18.8 knots to propel her into the Volvo Ocean Race record books.
Depuis que Tyco a quitté la flotte jeudi soir pour rentrer en Afrique du Sud réparer son safran endommagé, le rythme de la tête de flotte s’est emballé dans les 50e Hurlants. A l’approche des Kerguélen, sous des latitudes glaciales et tourmentées, les cheveux se sont dressés sur les têtes, le cœur des hommes s’est emballé et les chiffres du (…)
Neither wind nor rain nor sloppy seas could keep Brad Van Liew from finishing his 4,000+ mile transatlantic voyage this weekend aboard his newly acquired Open-50 competition yacht Mission America. Van Liew rolled into Charleston early this morning with the day’s first glimpse of sun at his heels.
Three hours and 32 minutes after Groupama took victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre, Kingfisher-Foncia, skippered by Alain Gautier and Ellen MacArthur, crossed the line at 2225hrs 10s local time (1225hrs 10s GMT) under a "magical starry night", in Gautier’s own words. They have spent 14 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes and 10 seconds racing.
Après l’arrivée de Groupama et de Foncia dimanche soir, Loïck Peyron et Loïc Le Mignon (Fujifilm) sont les prochains navigateurs attendus à Salvador de Bahia, suivis par Jean Le Cam et Jacques Caraës (Bonduelle) puis par Jean-Luc Nélias et Michel Desjoyeaux (Belgacom). L’occasion pour ces trois duos de faire un premier petit bilan de cette (…)
At 1853hrs local time in Brazil, 2053 hrs GMT, Groupama, the Open 60ft trimaran skippered by 28 year old Frenchman Franck Cammas, with Swiss co-skipper Steve Ravussin, crossed the line and thus took the final victory in the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre 2001, from Le Havre, France, to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Groupama covered 5,188.6 (…)
C’est à 18h53 heure locale soit à 21h53 heure française que Groupama skippé par Franck Cammas et Stève Ravussin a coupé la ligne d’arrivée de cette cinquième édition de la Transat Jacques Vabre, Le Havre (France) - Salvador de Bahia (Brésil). Groupama aura parcouru les 5 188,6 milles (soit 9 609,3 kilomètres) de ce parcours en 14 jours, 9 (…)
La dernière nuit en mer a changé la donne en tête de la course puisque Franck Cammas et Stève Ravussin (Groupama) ont pris le commandement de la flotte alors qu’il ne restait plus que 380 milles à parcourir pour atteindre Salvador de Bahia. Une arrivée qui s’annonce pour la nuit, aux dires du Suisse, vers 20h00 (heure française) soit en fin (…)
Juste après Gitana IX qui a annoncé officiellement son abandon suite à un petit problème de structure sur la coque centrale, c’est Francis Joyon qui indiquait à la vacation radio de 13h30 qu’il était lui aussi contraint de rallier directement Bahia.