Discussions
were held in French, with a summary produced here in English
by Anne Hinton
Luc Talbourdet enjoys sailing for pleasure, and
participates on, for example, a JP54 in races such as the Tour de Belle Ile. In
addition to being the current IMOCA class President, Luc Talbourdet heads the
Absolute Dreamer company, primarily set up around Jean-Pierre Dick’s
Virbac-Paprec sponsored boats, but which also finds sponsorship for other
sailors, such as Jean Le Cam, who was sponsored by SynerCiel in the 2012-13 Vendée
Globe.
The proposed changes to the present IMOCA class rule
are two-fold:
1 1. Changes to construction of the keel,
following the loss of keels from a number of boats on the last Vendée Globe.
Two options are on the table, with a view to improved safety. These are either:
a. Changes to the construction of the
keel to make this tighter and safer, but not necessarily involving
specification of materials from which the keel is to be composed b. A change to a “forged” keel, meaning that the current carbon keels would be required to have a metallic casing
2. A change to make the class rules more
strict and more of a one design, but without ruling out the use of older IMOCA
boats with some modifications. This may, perhaps, be best described as a move
towards a tight “box rule”, and would also involve removal of the need for
individual boat designers, so taking out some of the cost of creating a new
IMOCA boat. However, the idea is definitely not to have a strict one design.
The impetus for the second change proposed is given by
Luc Talbourdet as economics in the current period of global financial crisis. A
new class sponsor would be used to help fund the design of the new class of
IMOCA boats by a chosen firm of naval architects.
The idea behind this is to maximize the number of
boats on the starting line for the next Vendée Globe, by cutting the costs to
sponsors and competitors. While some, such as Macif, are still sponsoring campaigns
fully, there is increasing financial hardship for many former sponsors of
international sailing teams, whose budgets have been substantially reduced. The
aims are to try to:
i. ensure that many sailors still have
the opportunity to fulfil their dream of competing in the Vendée Globe during
this period of more difficult financing of, in particular, smaller budget
campaigns, and
ii. level the playing field for all, to
counter the disparities in funding of different campaigns, so that all teams
have a chance of winning and not just participating in the Vendée Globe
The changes to the IMOCA class – subject to a vote on
19th April 2013 - will be implemented prior to the next Barcelona
World Race, the two-handed around the world race, starting and finishing in
Barcelona in 2014-15, so Vendée Globe competitors will have plenty of time to
prepare their boats for the next race, starting in 2016.
At present, Luc Talbourdet comments, the balance of votes
seems likely to be about 50-50 in regard to the proposed IMOCA class rule
changes. If the move towards a more one design rule is accepted, it is likely that a French food firm with a strong association with ocean racing will
come on board as IMOCA class sponsor.
