JVT hunt bursts into the Pacific—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 17 Dec 2015 If you live in Florida, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast or SoCal, you may be familiar with the word “winter”, but for the rest us living under Autumn’s frosty climax, next week’s winter solstice will offer at least the small modicum of buoyancy in the knowledge that days are getting longer (albeit marked by seconds) and the boating season will be coming around the bend before terribly long. Until spring’s arrival, however, it’s important to have mental pathways to the sea and to sailing, and-for me at least-there’s no better escape than the two Jules Verne Trophy (JVT) attempts that are currently unfurling in the storm-swept latitudes of the Southern Ocean.

For anyone just tuning in to this stunning chase, a little back story: in 2012 skipper Loick Peyron and his capable crew aboard the 131-foot maxi trimaran, Banque Populaire V (now Spindrift 2), managed to lap the planet in just 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds by way of the world’s great capes, setting the current Jules Verne Trophy record.

While this record time is mind-numbingly fast, this fall two teams stepped up to try and best this reference time, leaving France within hours of each other on November 22. Co-skippers Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard and their crew aboard Spindrift 2, and skipper Francis Joyon and his crew aboard the 105-foot maxi trimaran IDEC SPORT (née Groupama 3, Banque Populaire VII and Lending Club 2) are now deep into the Pacific Ocean and are not only racing each other but also shadow-boxing the reference time set by Peyron in 2012.

Impressively, the smaller of the two trimarans-IDEC SPORT-is keeping pace with the bigger, supposedly faster boat, but both teams are struggling to stay ahead of Peyron’s blistering pace. In fact, at times, the two boats have been within sight of each other, deep in the Southern Ocean.

As of this writing, IDEC Sport and Spindrift 2 were both well to the east of New Zealand, punching for Cape Horn, with Spindrift 2 ahead of IDEC Sport by some 60 miles. Even more impressive is that both Spindrift 2 and IDEC Sport are within 200 miles of Peyron’s position during his 2012 JVT run.

Given the speeds that these trimarans are capable of sailing, a Delta as skinny as 200 miles can be made or lost in just a few hours, making this virtual and real-world race all the more captivating.

While it’s stunning to see a smaller trimaran keeping pace with a bigger platform, it’s even more impressive to remember that IDEC Sport was almost 1,300 miles off the pace when the boats screamed around Africa, but some smart sailing and some lucky weather breaks conspired to make this an incredibly tight dog fight that will likely last all the way back to France.

Having personally sailed aboard IDEC SPORT this past summer on San Francisco Bay when she was wearing Lending Club livery and was under the command of American ex-pat Ryan Breymaier (easily one of the country’s best shorthanded and solo sailors), I can report that the boat is quick, as evidenced by the blistering passage record of three days, 18 hours and 9 seconds that Breymaier and company set from Los Angeles to Hawaii. And if I was really being honest, I’d admit that I’m still wiping the smile off my face after seeing the speedo pump out the magical numbers 39.51 knots.

But, if absolute honesty is being pulled into this conversation, I will also admit to having fantastic memories of sailing with Loick Peyron off of Boston Harbor in 2008 aboard his IMOCA 60 Gitana Eighty, after Peyron handily won the Artemis Transat race. I can still remember watching Peyron smoking cigarettes out of a little plastic cigarette holder as we ripped past the Boston Islands, a chain of Buddhist prayer flags fluttering in the springtime sunshine.

While all records deserve to be broken-including Peyron’s-it’s a lot more entertaining for us winter-bound landlubbers if all of the horses in the race (both virtual and real-world) are equally matched, with the final outcome being determined by pure sailing skill and the errant lucky meteorological break, rather than next-generation hardware.

And, with just 111 miles separating Spindrift 2’s bow from the virtual stern of Peyron’s Banque Populaire V-and only 60 miles separating IDEC Sport’s bow stem from Spindrift 2’s sternpost, this JVT attempt is still anyone’s race.

One critical difference, of course, is that Peyron and his former crew are comfortably on shore, likely watching this race unfurl, while the crews aboard Spindrift 2 and IDEC Sport sustain real-world poundings in the Southern Ocean. Still, the simple fact remains that Peyron has already won his varsity jacket, while Bertarelli and Guichard and their crew on Spindrift 2, as well as Joyon and company aboard IDEC Sport, are still trying to earn theirs.

Get the full JVT scoop, inside this issue, and don’t miss the latest news from the Super 12s, the Golden Globe Race of 2018, the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, and the Clipper Round the World Race.

May the four winds blow you safely home,