The DMG Mori Sailing Team announced this week the arrival of Sam Davies and Nicolas Lunven alongside Kojiro Shiraishi, with The Ocean Race Atlantic next summer and The Ocean Race in January 2027 in their sights. This is an opportunity for Sailorz to learn more about the Japanese Imoca project.
After three consecutive Vendée Globes, the last two under DMG Mori colors (retirement in 2016-17, 16th in 2020-21, 24th in 2024-25), Kojiro Shiraishi and his partner barely waited for the finish of the 2024-2025 edition to look ahead and launch a more ambitious 2025-2028 campaign. “When I finished the Vendée Globe a year ago, we said with DMG Mori that we wanted to launch a new project, but a different one,” the 58-year-old skipper, newly arrived in Lorient from Japan, told Sailorz this Friday morning. “The Whitbread, which became the Volvo and then The Ocean Race, has always interested me, so we agreed to enter this race and build a new boat.”
The Japanese skipper, who launched a VPLP design for the 2020 Vendée Globe (still for sale), then set out to find an architect and, after consulting several, chose Guillaume Verdier. “Our first meeting was before the start of the 2024 Vendée Globe; he came to our office without a notebook or presentation, we just had a friendly discussion. I didn’t think he would accept our project,” he says. “Since he had designed boats that had won a lot, I asked him if it bothered him if I didn’t necessarily fit into that category. He replied that what he liked about our project was having the freedom to express himself; it was a nice surprise for me.”
Built, like the previous one, at Multiplast, this new DMG Mori, surrounded by the utmost secrecy, will arrive at the team’s hangar in Lorient on March 9, with the launch scheduled for June. “Since DMG Mori is a technology company, we set ourselves the challenge of innovating and building a technological boat that might serve the evolution of the Imoca class. I can’t wait to see how she works,” explains Kojiro Shiraishi.
Jacques Caraës was convinced to join
To help him manage this new machine, whose hull design is highly anticipated, Shiraishi chose to surround himself with experience, first by entrusting the project’s reins to the seasoned Jacques Caraës, appointed team manager to replace Charles Euverte, who left at the end of the previous campaign. “Between the new boat, The Ocean Race, and the 2028 Vendée Globe, we’ve set the bar very high. I knew that on my own, I couldn’t get the best out of this boat. So I told myself we had to build a strong team,” says the skipper. “The team manager position is the most important. I had thought about it before the Vendée Globe start and, as soon as I finished, I contacted Jacques, whom I’ve known since my first race in 2016 when he was race director. I did everything to try and convince him; I don’t know how many times I followed up!”
The Japanese skipper’s persistence eventually convinced “Jaco,” 66, to take on a role that was new to him. “It’s true that Kojiro sought me out a lot, knowing I had decided to stop race directing,” Caraës comments. “At one point, I thought it was hard to turn down this new challenge, with a new boat, an ambitious project focused on a crew, and an important human element.”
Appointed last summer, the former Vendée Globe race director immediately set to work “restructuring the team,” specifying: “Since there had been departures, they had left a big gap in management; consequently, we redefined the organizational chart.” This began with the technical team, recruiting experienced members alongside Léo Gonin (head of composites and shipyard monitoring at Multiplast): Stan Delbarre (boat captain) and Yvan Joucla (rigging), both of whom previously worked for Yannick Bestaven.
Nicolas Lunven and Sam Davies
reunited once more
Next was the sailing team, with the goal of forming a crew for The Ocean Race Atlantic in summer 2026 (starting September 2 from New York for a European port yet to be announced), and then for The Ocean Race itself. This led to this week’s announcement of new arrivals within the DMG Mori Sailing Team: Nicolas Lunven, “in charge of sporting and technical optimization,” and Sam Davies. “I contacted Nico quite early because he now has a lot of experience on foiling Imocas and is a very calm person,” explains Jacques Caraës. “Given the language barrier, which remains an issue for our crew [Kojiro Shiraishi speaks very little English, Ed.], I knew his temperament could match Kojiro’s.”
Contacted by Sailorz, the 43-year-old sailor, whom we interviewed two weeks ago about his Figaro project with PRB, explains: “Contacts with Jacques go back to last summer. I then met Kojiro in the autumn to finalize things, and I’ve been collaborating with the team since Christmas. What won me over? The idea of continuing to sail in Imoca and racing The Ocean Race, a boat that promises to be quite innovative, but also working with Jacques, whom I like and respect very much.”
As for Sam Davies, her arrival on the team was finalized in late 2025. “Last year, I really focused on the Initiatives Cœur project and the handover to Violette (Dorange), even if I had the idea of continuing to race in a crewed competition in the back of my mind,” she says. “It was eventually during the return delivery of the Transat Café L’Or that I told myself I would really like to do The Ocean Race Atlantic this year. I then sent my CV to several teams; Jaco called me immediately and also mentioned The Ocean Race, and the day after I returned, I went to see him.” For Caraës, “Sam’s kindness and competence meant the choice was made quite naturally. Like Nico, she combines experience, performance, but also a capacity for exchange and a talent for teaching.”
“My fourth and
final Vendée Globe”
The British skipper (51) is delighted to sail again with Nicolas Lunven, who raced with her in the Jacques Vabre in 2021—“Our duo worked well,” she notes. In 2026, she will juggle supporting Violette Dorange, until June before the launch of DMG Mori, then from the return from The Ocean Race Atlantic into the Route du Rhum, and the Japanese project, driven by “the dream of sailing on a new boat that pushes design and performance further; it’s an incredible opportunity.”
The rest of the future crew? “Internally, we will have Alexandre Demange, who was on the podium of the last Mini Transat with the DMG Mori Sailing Academy (3rd in proto),” answers Jacques Caraës. “This year, we will test a young Japanese woman, Arisa Moriya, who did a tour of Japan with Kojiro and has amazing motivation. If it goes well, she could do a few legs of The Ocean Race. And we still have two young people to recruit, a boy and a girl who have already sailed in Imoca; we will finalize the choice very soon with Kojiro.”
Asked about the team’s objectives for The Ocean Race—which currently has only two teams officially confirmed, DMG Mori Sailing Team and Malizia—the Japanese skipper replies: “Dr. Mori (head of DMG Mori) told us it would be good to get podium finishes on every leg.” And he concludes, when asked about the rest of the program, namely the 2028 Vendée Globe: “It will be my fourth and last; I will be 61, so it will be a big challenge, but the experience on The Ocean Race with Nico and Sam will allow me to learn a lot.”
Image : Anne Beaugé
