March 5, 2015, Lorient. “The launch of Safran 2 (designed by Guillaume Verdier, with VPLP, Editor’s note), which is part of the first generation of Imocas on which we introduced foils. It was not a sure thing to make foils work on an offshore monohull; we were not at all certain we would succeed. We had carried out conclusive tests on a Mini with Team Banque Populaire, and our calculations showed that it was effective, with differences of 2.5 knots compared to daggerboard boats in certain conditions, but there were many uncertainties between reality and practice. Would it handle the waves? Would the skippers be able to manage them? We didn’t really know, and in fact, we saw quite quickly that it worked.
Following this, we succeeded in flying multihulls offshore in rough sea conditions. We had designed a foil for the MOD70 Gitana XV; they were extremely happy because the boat was flying, but it was not at all stable. I then suggested adding another point of support, a wing under the daggerboard or a huge elevator on the rudder; they built the wing which was then fitted to Maserati after the boat was bought by Giovanni Soldini, and it worked immediately. This subsequently led to Gitana 17, the complete boat for offshore sailing, capable of flying stably in three to four meters of trough. Ultimately, this decade will have been marked by the development of offshore flight.”
December 25, 2016, Brest. “Thomas’s (Coville) arrival from his solo round-the-world race, with the record to boot (49 days 3 hours, 7 minutes), on Christmas Day—it was a beautiful gift from heaven. But beyond this record, what was important was everything we had experienced beforehand. Both successes, since we started with Thomas with a victory (on the Transat Jacques Vabre 1999 in a monohull) and we had won other races, but also difficulties. At that time, things had been complicated for a while, particularly after the accident on the Route du Rhum 2014 (collision with a cargo ship), and we had implemented things by working differently. Ultimately, all of this led us to this victory which had an unequaled savor.
I have images in my head of the arrival with the water jets from L’Abeille Bourbon in front of the boat and the incredible crowds waiting for Thomas on the docks in Brest; it was a very special emotion. It was also a good illustration of the fact that if you agree to look for the causes of difficult moments and work on them, it is always possible to bounce back and find a way out; in this case, it was a dazzling success. But also a good lesson in life. Sailing exaggerates everything because you experience extreme situations in short periods, but which you can transpose into your everyday life.”
December 17, 2017, Brest. “François Gabart’s arrival for his solo round-the-world record on Macif. I had just finished the Mini Transat (second in the Series division), I had been invited by TBS, which was also a partner of François, and I had followed his return to Brest on a rib. It moved and marked me, because sailing solo around the world without other boats around was something rare; not many people attempted that feat. And it’s a record (42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds) that is not talked about often enough, which is a pretty crazy maritime achievement. When I think that Guirec (Soudée) is going to try it in the other direction, that’s another level of craziness!”
June 24, 2018, The Hague. “The victorious arrival of Dongfeng Race Team in the Volvo Ocean Race, a moment of stress like I have rarely experienced! Advised before the start from Gothenburg by our router Marcel Van Triest, the team (led by Charles Caudrelier) took an option along the Danish coast. If it worked, it paid off, but not by much. A few hours before the finish, it was so stressful that I stopped looking at the tracker. We got into a Zodiac to follow the final miles, and that’s when I received a text from Franck Cammas, who was at home, telling me: “I think you’re going to make it.” I looked to the left, I saw a red boat (Mapfre), and to the right, along the Dutch coast, another red boat, ours. I said to myself: “What is this?”
And finally, we arrived fifteen minutes ahead. It was a very strong moment, the culmination of work I had started in 2013. It wasn’t just me, but an entire team that succeeded, with an atypical project, under the colors of China, and therefore an international crew, including Chinese sailors, whom we had to help progress. We were outsiders, because we didn’t fit the Volvo standards at that time. The fact of winning against all odds also resonated a lot with my own journey. I felt a lot of emotion; that result also showed that diversity was absolutely possible for winning, which put things into perspective.”
September 18, 2019, Lorient. “The first time that, on my PC screen, I saw AC75s flying stably and cleanly, balanced on their foils, and going at incredible speeds, even faster than multihulls, when we used to say that the latter were conceptually the fastest boats. At the end of the 2017 America’s Cup, Team New Zealand, as convincing winners on incredibly efficient 50-foot catamarans with their foils and rigid wings, announced that the next edition would be raced in monohulls. The majority of people said we were going backward.
We knew that the Kiwis’ choice was constrained by their historical supporters and the Cup’s funders (notably Luna Rossa and Patrizio Bertelli). Some thought we were going back to monohulls as we knew them ten years earlier, the America’s Cup Class boats, certainly aesthetic and sailed by large crews, but which struggled to exceed 13 knots. And in fact, the Team New Zealand design team, including Guillaume Verdier, responded to this political constraint by proposing an incredible technological leap, with this flying monohull concept. We then watched, incredulously, the first sketches of these boats after the release of the class rules, before, a year later, seeing them sail almost exactly as they had been presented in the simulators and 3D images. A new revolution, on the level of the multihull Cup in 2013, bravo!”
Francesca Clapcich, Olympic and offshore sailor
July 1, 2023, Genoa. “The last ten years have been extremely interesting and successful in my career. Definitely, one of the highlights has been becoming the first Italian ever The Ocean Race in 2023, with the arrival in Genova, in my own country. I was born and raised in Italy and being able to become the first Italian to win the race, in my own country had a special feeling. My family was there, lot of my friends, my mom, my wife and daughter, being able to share this victory with them like made it special, it is probably my best memory !
And lately, honestly, a couple of weeks ago, finishing the Transat Café L’Or in the second position for the first race of my own campaign, the first time I was sailing an Imoca double-handed with Will harris. Finishing on the podium of such a historic transatlantic has been really memorable, it’s kind of rewarding for all the work we put in the last year and a half to get the sponsorship, to have an entire project and an entire team behind supporting me. It’s a big reward, a big result for all of us. I’m 37 now, I was 27 ten years ago, still doing Olympic stuff before Rio. Since then, I have raced The Ocean Race, the Women’s America’s Cup and now I have this project for the Vendée Globe in 2028, it’s pretty special being able to still be decently young and to have all these opportunities. I think that a lot of amazing sailors in the last ten years did so much work with incredible results in our sport, being one of the few who can say they’ve done different kinds of sailing and historic results, for me, it’s a motivation and a big pride, I hope inspiring a new generation to do the same and even better.”
Charlie Dalin, offshore sailor
January 7, 2024, Brest. “The start of the Arkéa Ultim Challenge. Firstly, for personal reasons: I had sailed my Imoca Macif a little in December, I had not yet had my scan following the start of my treatment (for his cancer), but I felt that things were getting better, so by attending this start, I was starting to tell myself that I too would be able to sail around the world the following winter on the Vendée Globe (which he would win despite his illness) and maybe even one day this Ultim race.
Secondly, because the spectacle was incredible. It was cold but super sunny in Brest. I was on a semi-rigid boat from the SVR-Lazartigue team to follow the start, in the middle of the boats which set off quite calmly, before, not long after, hitting a northerly wind. They all then went into flying mode on their foils; not one touched the water; it was truly incredible to see these flying boats setting off around the world solo. That day, I rediscovered my child’s eyes; I was amazed, like when I followed the races when I was younger; it was truly magical.”
Charles Caudrelier, offshore sailor
February 6, 2024, Cape Horn. “Passing Cape Horn with the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild leading the Arkéa Ultim Challenge; it was beyond anything I could have imagined when I started my career. I dreamed of the Route du Rhum, the Jules Verne Trophy, and big multihulls, but I never would have imagined that, twenty or thirty years later, I would pass Cape Horn solo on a flying boat of that size, especially since it was a big first for a so-called flying trimaran; there was a somewhat historic side to it. What’s more, it was a Cape Horn like few others: in daylight, under the sun, I passed right next to it. I admit that I let go, I shed a tear, which almost never happens to me. I told myself that it was an enormous privilege to experience such a moment on a solo round-the-world race, which is still quite demanding.
Especially since I had to wait a few days circling in the water before reaching the Horn (to let a violent depression pass), which had never happened to me in a race. I am not a very contemplative person, but there, in the middle of the Pacific, I felt intensely emotional about taking care of the boat, about being in fusion with her; that gave even more value to this Cape Horn. In addition to the fact that the last few days before passing it had been very tough, with a hole in my boat, it was the first time I had felt so vulnerable.”
Charline Picon, Olympic athlete
August 2, 2024, Marseille. “I am often asked to choose between my Rio gold medal (in RS:X board) and my Paris bronze medal ( in 49er FX). I will talk about the one in Paris. Because we were not expected at all. In Rio, I had the status of favorite, which I embraced and which gave me a magnificent emotion, but this medal in 49er FX is really special in the sense that, when we launched this project three years earlier, I had no idea what awaited me, what this boat was like, and what it was like to sail as a duo. As for Sarah (Steyaert), she was coming back from a five-year maternity break. At the beginning, people followed us on this project, perhaps because with my two medals (also silver in Tokyo in RS:X), they couldn’t say no to me, but I don’t know if anyone really believed in it.
The three years were difficult, we hung in there, I discovered the strength of the duo, and with Sarah, we managed to find our bond, our common point, which was emotion. I remember that the first time we went out on the water, before passing in front of our supporters, our friends, and our family, I said to Sarah and Philippe Mourniac, the director of the French team: “We are going to cry.” You might think that letting yourself be overcome by emotion is a sign of weakness, but for us, it was OK; we knew it was important to pass this stage and share that emotion of being at the Olympics, it was incredibly powerful. And the strongest moment is when, after crossing the Medal Race finish line, having dropped from second to third place, Sarah came to say that if she had been alone on her Laser, she would have been disappointed, but that here, thanks to me, she had experienced something completely crazy. For my part, I so wanted to experience that emotion of the finish line as a medalist that when I crossed it, I screamed, a primal scream, then I took Sarah into the water—absolute madness! Winning the Olympic medal in three years on this platform, given where we came from, was incredible; we showed that nothing was impossible.”
Violette Dorange, skipper
November 10, 2024, Les Sables d’Olonne. “The start of the Vendée Globe, it was the culmination of a somewhat crazy project. We didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be to find money; we had to hang on mentally, but finally, by not giving up, we managed to get through it at the last moment. That day concluded those four years of work, with the last year being completely chaotic; we finished 39th in the race for miles!
The start itself was incredibly emotional; I will remember the circuit all my life, it started with the wait in the technical area. Since I was the last to leave, I watched all the others parade in the channel on the big screen. Then, I had passed in front of all the journalists who were all asking me the same question, before the descent of the pontoon, the trophy at the end, Alan (Roura) and Conrad (Colman) about to leave, my boat with my team on board, my family, my friends, all the spectators overlooking the scene—it was magical. And leaving the channel was incredible; I must have cried from the moment I left my apartment until the end of the channel, it was completely crazy! The first time, it marks you for life.”
The 10 years of Sailorz, what they say about it.
In addition to recounting their memorable moments from the past decade, several of our key witnesses mentioned the tenth anniversary of Sailorz. “10 years? That’s a lot!, exclaims Violette Dorange in the middle of the Atlantic, who was 14 when the first issue came out. Sailorz, it’s truly the number one specialized media; we always learn a tremendous amount by reading you, and the podcasts are magical, with feedback from incredibly great sailors; everyone has a story to tell, not just the most publicized ones!”
The same inspiration in the podcasts for Charles Caudrelier: “I appreciate the fact that you surround yourselves with experts, but also that you allow sailors time to express themselves with your podcasts. In fact, I was the very first guest on Into The Wind. I remember that at the time, we did an hour and a half and Pierre-Yves (Lautrou) told me: “We were far too long, we need to do less than an hour!” And I’ve seen that afterwards, some people have abused it much more than me!” Up to 6 hours with Thomas Coville…
Charline Picon finds it “great to highlight this particular world of competitive sailing and to make it known to the widest possible audience,” while Bruno Dubois adds: “There was a place in the sailing environment for a structure like Sailorz, very different from what we’ve known in the past, with a medium that spreads French experience and diversity in sailing, not just in France, but worldwide.”
Often abroad and sometimes “disconnected from the news,” Guillaume Verdier is delighted “to have a medium that allows me to keep up with what’s happening, but also a real sailing social network that connects people thanks to the classifieds,” while Patricia Brochard concludes: “Your journey is also incredibly interesting; you started with a newsletter, as two people, which has become a real success. It is because you managed to find an answer to needs that you gradually became indispensable.”
Do you also have a memory or a message to send to Sailorz for its tenth anniversary? Just reply to this email!
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