| Jouy,
October 99 Situation of our 60'Open one year before theVendee Globe start
Giovanni Soldini, on Fila, does not plan to participate in the Vendée Globe race. Dominique Wavre has just launched his boat, (Swiss One) in Cherbourg where it was built by JMV shipyard with the same hull mould as Somewhere, Gartmore and Group 4. The keel is fixed. The wing rotating mast is a partial autobearer held by front and back stays and 2 shrouds without spreaders. It is an improvement towards simplification. The hull, the fin keel and the mast are in carbon. At present, Swiss One is sailing around Spain
towards Antibes, France. Michel Desjoyeaux has a new boat, PRB, being built by Mag France shipyard with the same mould as Sodebo. The deck is finished and the hull is under construction. www.michel-desjoyeaux.com. Eric Dumont will race with his current boat, Café-Legal Le Goût, (former Bagages Superior) which will be renovated. She will get a sloop rig, a steel canting keel and will be called "Un Univers de Services" Marc Thiercelin on Somewhere, after Around Alone 98-99 and the Transat Jacques Vabre 99, decided to change his roof and to install a mobile keel. Group 4 (Mike Golding) et Gartmore (Josh Hall) will race unchanged.(Group 4 et Gartmore)
Our objective for the Vendee Globe 2000 : to have the boats as safe as possible.
Since Fila (for Giovanni Soldini, 1996), all the boats designed by GROUPE FINOT meet the criteria for stability and for righting up required by the current rules of IMOCA, Vendee Globe and FICO. In addition, we request of our racers that the boats be able to right up completely, with or without mast, and that the boat be tested without mast in a harbor by turning the boat over 180° . We would like that the tests on the strength and righting up for boats eventually be generalized and become compulsory in the rules.
The CE ratification requires the builder and the architect of a boat to put down the elements of construction and to show the meticulousness with which the boat is built. We hope that this effort will also be applied to open racing boats.
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