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Alain Gautier, CER, D35, Décision 35, Extreme 40, Mirabaud, MOD 70, Stève Ravussin, Vulcain Trophy

Vulcain Trophy

The Med favours Michel Desjoyeaux

Text: Pierre Nusslé

Year: 2011

This was Michel Desjoyeaux’s first time in the Decison 35 championship, renamed the Vulcain Trophy this year (formerly the Julius Baer Challenge). The last two legs of the season, run in the Mediterranean, distinguished the Foncia team, in the wake of its many endeavours since 2006 when, with Alain Gautier at the helm, Alinghi, Okalys-Corum and Banque Populaire had stood in the way of glory.

Entering the last Grand Prix of Antibes four points ahead of Alinghi and six ahead of Veltigroup, Team Foncia was well placed for victory. And when Michel Desjoyeaux takes up a challenge, it is not to have a token role. “Game, set and match! We’ve won the trophy with a victory in the last leg, it’s great! It means we worked hard and well on board, says the French skipper. The team slowly gained confidence as the season went on. We accumulated victories after a failure in the first leg. With such astute and tactical opponents, we couldn’t take any risks, but had to be good and sharp all the time. Challenging such boats as Alinghi, whose team has been sailing together for about 10 years, we managed to stay in the competition till the end without losing our concentration and focus. We constantly questioned ourselves and this allowed us to progress and keep Alinghi at a distance in Antibes, in lighter winds than in Beaulieu-sur-Mer”.

The D35 performed well in the Med

Was it a good idea to transfer the multihulls from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean? The bet made by the owners was a long shot. The cost of the event (CHF 400 000) and complicated logistics put everybody under pressure. The D35 maiden sea race aroused the curiosity of all the racers. On a more open playground there were new considerations such as the wind, the waves, and the reliability of the more delicate parts of the boat at sea.

“Listening to the comments of sailors, organizers and sponsors, these two Mediterranean events were a success, says Bertrand Favre, the series master. Over four days, we only had one day without sailing in Beaulieu (too many waves) and one in Antibes (too little wind). The behavior of the D35 at sea was a nice surprise. The multihulls coped in the waves, even if, admittedly some crews did better than others. In salty water, the D35 floats a little higher and the warm wind is less dense than on Lake Geneva, which requires greater adaptability.”

Alinghi was the quickest to adapt during the Beaulieu leg, when the others took longer to trim and tune their boats. On the other hand, in Antibes, the sailing conditions were closer to conditions on Lake Geneva. Foncia was able to make the best of it, equally true for CER and her Geneva crew (Arnaud Psarofaghis and Jérôme Clerc in particular), and Guy de Picciotto’s Zen Too, helmed by Fred Le Peutrec. “We opted for quite a conservative sailing mode, explains Jérôme Clerc. With careful starts and tactical choices based on our strategy. It allowed us to always know where we stood and to stay hidden in the most critical moments. It took us a little while to tune our automatisms in the Antibes races, because we hadn’t sailed together on this boat since the Bol d’Or Mirabeau”.

Ernesto Bertarelli, upset by the race jury’s decisions during the Antibes races, sportingly acknowledged Foncia’s merit. “Michel Desjoyeaux and his crew have been consistent on the circuit during the whole season. We also had good times, especially during our first victory at the Bol d’Or Mirabeau on a D35, and the magnificent success in Beaulieu. This event in the Med had to be done. I believe we should think about other competitions such as this one in the years to come”, says Alinghi’s boss.

A 100% Lake Geneva season in 2012

The future? The members of the AMC (Racing Multihull Association), owners of the D35s, have already drafted the outlines of the Vulcain Trophy’s 2012 season. As planned, it will be run 100% on Lake Geneva, says the Series master. “The next calendar still needs to be validated by our General Assembly, but there won’t be any surprises. The season will be a standard one, with a first part especially set on the Geneva-Rolle and the Bol d’Or Mirabeau, then the traditional September legs. We’ll just have to avoid calendar conflicts with the Extreme 40s and the MOD70s’ circuits, who will host some of the Lake’s sailors, adds Bertrand Favre*. How many Decision 35 will there be on the start line in 2012? The question still remains unanswered, as some owners haven’t yet made up their minds. “Two or three boats could change hands, but that’s not a problem, we’re still counting on about ten D35s next year”. Until 2013, the Vulcain Trophy will follow its regular course. But the owners will have to work on the future of the 10-year old series.

^*Read the complete interview on www.skippers.tv