Crédit : AFP
Over an ocean racing career already spanning 25 years Jourdain has felt the depths of disappointment – having to abandon in two successive Vendée Globe races and the last Barcelona World Race – but the Finistèrian skipper who grew up sailing with and against Michel Desjoyeaux, Jean Le Cam, and raced with Eric Tabarly in 1985 in the Whitbread Round the World Race - matched his greatest solo success to date with a hard earned win in a race which had many meteorological twists and turns from start to finish.
He confirmed that he had a message of warm congratulations from long time sparring partner and close friend Desjoyeaux, who lies 7th with more than 350 miles to the finish.
Other than starting on the back foot in Saint Malo after making a late sail selection he was never out of the top three throughout the 3539 miles course and took the lead on Wednesday 3rd November when he punched further north and gained as the leading pack went around the north of the Azores high.
Four different skippers lead in the early stages of the race, but Jourdain’s strategy underlined his vast experience and this time, as the charismatic skipper noted on the dockside this morning, he proved to be consistently in phase with the meteo, with his boat, with his strategy and fleet management tactics.
2006 was a very different race, when he beat Le Cam by just 28 minutes at the end of a gruelling, high octane race. Jourdain sailed smartly through the transition areas and pushed hardest when he knew he could gain valuable miles. His routing through the final four days of light, unstable winds, down to Guadeloupe was an object lesson, while both of his main rivals suffered more either side of his.
Jourdain paid tribute to the winning boat, the three year old Farr designed Véolia Environnement 2, formerly Seb Josse’s BT, which has consistently proven quick in previous but never yet delivered a major race victory. Their relationship – matching a skipper whose recent big races have been ill fated, with a boat which has been badly damaged and retired from last year’s Transat Jacques Vabre and the 2008-9 Vendée Globe – may have seemed like an odd couple, but it is one which clearly bore fruit.
As Veolia Environnement crossed the finish line second placed Armel Le Cléac’h was at the NW corner of the island on Brit Air and expected this morning.
From Rivacom / La Route du Rhum
