New sporting goals and ambitions for Sails of Change in 2025
by Sails of Change 25 May 01:02 AEST
New sporting goals and ambitions for Sails of Change in 2025 © Loris Von Siebenthal
With the TF35 season set to open this coming weekend with the Nyon Grand Prix, ambitions are high among the Sails of Change Team as the two crews led respectively by Yann Guichard and Duncan Späth seek to realise their respective targets.
An unprecedented season of success in 2024 saw Guichard - the renowned Olympic sailing champion and successful inshore and offshore multihull sailor- secure 'the treble' with his Sails of Change 8 crew, the first time a TF35 has won the Genève-Rolle-Genève, the Bol D'Or Mirabaud and also the overall season TF35 Trophy.
Co-founder with Dona Bertarelli of the Sails of Change racing stable, Guichard and crew look to defend their clutch of titles, whilst Duncan Späth and the Sails of Change 10 crew are aiming high after an excellent winter of training, fine tuning their starting, boat-on-boat skills and their manoeuvres.
After his first season as skipper-helm of SUI 10, following three years sailing as mainsail trimmer with his stepfather Guichard's crew, Duncan now has eyes on a podium finish and proving they have closed the gap with their championship winning team-mates.
'Every detail makes a difference'
With his years of experience Guichard knows what the actual possibilities of repeating their 2024 victories are. He cautions, "Last season was incredible, but this year is a whole new challenge. Last year really everything went well and just worked out. I know this year will be very difficult, the level is very high. We know that every race will be tight. But we are ready to give our best in every race again."
He reflects, "Regularity was key, as was winning the long-distance races. We won the Bol d'Or, the Genève-Rolle-Genève, but consistency made the difference on the Grands Prix. It was so tight with Realteam. It was all at stake on the last GP and we just finished in front to win the championship. It was very close and every detail makes a difference."
"Our first goal is always simply to be performing at our best. Of course, we would love to win the Championship and the Bol d'Or again, and, yes, we will do everything we can to defend our title. We'll just take it race by race and we'll see where we end up." He concludes.
Closer and closer
Small updates to the flight system on the high speed 15m flying TF35 catamarans are set to make the competition closer than ever as the boats should become more stable through manoeuvres.
Yann Guichard explains, "It is a very small detail: the boat is now more stable and the take-off is easier. As soon as you reach 13.5kts, the system lifts the boat off the water and it is very reliable especially in the manoeuvre, because before when you had the two foils in the water it was difficult to control the boat. Now it is very stable and so you can take your time to do the manoeuvre. There will be much less difference now between all the boats."
He is clearly excited by what lies ahead, "I am looking forwards so much to the competition against the opponents, against Duncan as well, his progress has been significant, and so I am looking forwards to race and sail against the other teams and against him. And there is a new team as well in the Italian team led by Marco Favale, he has a strong crew and he will be in the heart of the competition very quickly, even at this first GP."
Guichard's Sails of Change 8 crew line up is unchanged for 2025 whilst Duncan Späth has brought in French 49er Olympian and coach Julien D'Ortoli to the SUI 10 line up. He will take on the role of tactician whilst Yann Jauvin has moved to mainsheet and performance analysis.
Consistent and resilient
Fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 49er European bronze medallist, Marseille native D'Ortoli will add to the experience of the whole Sails of Change team as well bring new edge to the performance of SUI 8,
"Julien knew a lot of the people in our team and that helps increase discussions and views within the bigger team. At the end of the day, out on the water, we are rivals, but as Sails of Change we are one and so that strengthens the team. It is a good match."
Duncan is clear on their aspirations for 2025, "What I want is most of all to be consistent and resilient, most of all, being ready to capitalise when opportunities arise and strengthen our competitiveness. Last year was a very good life lesson, we learned and we heard everything we needed to hear, and so that all helped us to put us where we are today. Now with a lot of training we are ready to do it on the water, to show we can be competitive. We want to be consistent, present and to be determined with the top guys."
A winter of training in Open 650s has been good for both crews which finished on the podium at Spi Ouest at Easter,
Späth reports, "Part of my team and Yann's team trained on the Open 650s which was good. We did a lot of work on the start line and match racing and one-v-one, which was all very important for me to get into. And we managed to finish this off with Spi Ouest in Brittany where we put both boats on the podium which was the cherry on the cake. We led for the first two days but then it got difficult!"
And the missions of sustainability and ecological responsibility are ongoing, never stopping
The need to protect biodiversity and promote conservation is a mission that Sails of Change pursues on all levels, from local to global. It is the vision, which is central to Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy, the team's sponsor. In accordance with these fundamental values, Sails of Change became a key signatory for Sports for Nature in 2023, and since this season, carry the branding on the team's sails.
Skipper-helm Yann Guichard asserts, "We try to improve every day, to minimise our impact. As a professional sailing team we are dependent on healthy lakes, seas and oceans. Committing to Sports for Nature further demonstrates our strong commitment to protecting our playground and the biodiversity and the natural systems that support it. We use the framework to structure our actions underneath the four Sports for Nature pillars: protect, restore, supply chain risk & education and report against progress each year."
Dona Bertarelli adds, "Being part of the Sports for Nature community gives us access to tools, working groups and expert advice from peers and biodiversity experts allowing us to navigate and understand our impacts - which are often dependent on the geographic zone you are operating in. As a team we are strongly focused on reducing our impacts by measuring and reducing our carbon footprint, removing possible sources of pollution and identifying risks in our supply chain. We also make sure the team avoids sailing near fragile habitats and follows the protocol 'Check, Clean, Dry' to avoid transporting invasive species between different sailing locations."
An ocean advocate and the fastest woman to sail around the world — on the team's 2015-2016 Jules Verne Trophy record attempt of 47 days, 10 hours and 49 minutes — Dona Bertarelli is also a two-time winner of the prestigious Bol d'Or Mirabaud, as well as two Fastnet races. She holds the record from Ushant to the Equator on the Jules Verne Trophy route, and for the Transat Québec-Saint Malo and the Discovery Route. Dona Bertarelli has twice been named Female Sailor of the Year, in 2014 and 2016, at the SUI Sailing Awards.
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