Pro Sailing Tour: Season 2022 announcement

by Pro Sailing Tour 31 Mar 2022 01:29 PDT

Pro Sailing Tour © Jaques Vapillon - Pro Sailing Tour

The second edition of the Pro Sailing Tour, one of ocean racing's most exciting new competitions, gets under way in May with a multinational fleet of eight flying trimarans and 50 of the best offshore sailors!

With an exciting new course that will take the show from Corsica to Brittany via the south of England, the Pro Sailing Tour 2022 (12 May-10 July) is shaping up to be a highly competitive and exciting two-months of hard-fought racing.

Renowned for its intensity, its boat-on-boat battles and a very high level of racing, the Pro Sailing Tour brings together the talented Ocean Fifty skippers racing foiling trimarans that are as long as they are wide (15.24m x 15m respectively), as agile as they are spectacular and that can reach speeds of up to 42 knots (77km/h), on both inshore and offshore racecourses.

The Pro Sailing Tour for the Ocean Fifty trimarans was launched in 2021 and is the culmination of a determined development process by the teams and stakeholders that began in 2015 when the Class was professionalised and continued in 2017 with the addition of foils. Today, the Tour is going from strength to strength with the objective of making the Pro Sailing Tour a lasting part of the French and international ocean racing landscape.

A Pro Sailing Tour documentary series

The inaugural Pro Sailing Tour in 2021, raced by seven teams, lived up to all expectations. The high intensity inshore races and offshore battles were watched by 25,000 spectators, and the historic first season was won by the Ocean Fifty, Leyton, skippered by Sam Goodchild (GBR), with four victories, including the final from Toulon to Brest in August.

Viewers can get to the heart of the action and relive this exciting first season through a ground-breaking documentary series produced by Upswing Prod and directed by Edouard Mauriat. The documentary is distributed by Sunset+Vine - a global leader in this sector - and will be broadcast in France across the Canal + channels in April and May, as well as in more than 50 countries around the world.

View the races and 2022 programme here.

Four stages, eight teams and huge anticipation!

The exciting new 2022 Pro Sailing Tour inshore and offshore racecourses will challenge all aspects of the sailors' ability, taking the fleet from the Mediterranean to the English Channel. The first of four stages will get under way in Bonifacio, Corsica, in May, followed by Brest and then the bay of Saint-Brieuc, in France, before the fleet gathers for a final offshore battle from Roscoff to Finistère via Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the UK.

"The course is very well rounded and will test the sailors' inshore/coastal and offshore racing ability," said Race Director, Gilles Chiorri.

Eight teams will take up the challenge: Sam Goodchild (GBR), skipper of Leyton, will be out to defend his title, he will be joined by last year's runner-up, Quentin Vlamynk (FRA) onboard Arkema, in new colours. Armel Tripon (FRA) who arrived mid-season in 2021 will be back with his Les P'tits Doudous, as will Gilles Lamiré (FRA) onboard Groupe-GCA - 1001 Sourires, Sébastien Rogues (FRA) onboard Primonial, Thibaut Vauchel-Camus (FRA) onboard Solidaires en Peloton-ARSEP and Erwan Le Roux (FRA) onboard Koesio. Eric Peron (FRA) will be the newcomer to the 2022 fleet with the newly refitted Komilfo, formerly Prince de Bretagne.

They Said...

Gilles Chiorri, Race Director:
"This new season promises to be exciting. We have worked hard to create a course that is as well-rounded as possible. It is the ideal route to test the sailors on inshore and offshore courses and in different conditions. The race will start in the Mediterranean with a first leg in France, then to the Atlantic and finally, the English Channel. The big news for the 2022 edition is the stopover at the heart of the circuit's grand finale in Cowes, the birthplace of British sailing. It promises to be quite a race to finish the season!"

Sam Goodchild, skipper of Leyton, and defending champion:
"The memory of last year and our victory is still fresh in our minds. Now we are looking forward to the next season. By adding a central rudder and a new mast during our winter refit, we have done everything that we can to be even more competitive this season. In other news, our work with The Magenta Project to encourage gender diversity in sailing is ongoing. It is important to have a variety of profiles onboard so that we can learn from each other and contribute to building a great team."

Julien Mauriat, Pro Sailing Tour CEO:
"It is impossible not to be enthusiastic at the idea of starting this new season and seeing that the momentum created last year has resulted in a new boat joining the fleet in 2022, putting the number of teams on the start line at eight. The new course is also full of promise. While it returns to Brest for a second consecutive year, it also includes new venues that will offer beautiful backdrops and great conditions, whether in Corsica, the Isle of Wight, the bay of Saint-Brieuc or Roscoff.

"It is of particular importance for us to maintain long-term relationships with all Pro Sailing Tour stakeholders, partners, host cities and the Ocean Fifty Class in order to continue developing the circuit. This sense of continuity is at the basis of the partnership we have established with the Keneo agency that offers 360 degrees event expertise, with the objective of making the Pro Sailing Tour a lasting part of the French and international ocean racing landscape."