FRANCOIS GABART HEADING FOR THE VENDEE GLOBE 5th Dec 2010
The MACIF Group has just joined the IMOCA circuit. During the traditional evening celebrating the French Ocean Racing Champion, the French insurance company officially announced that the young Figaro racer François Gabart would be getting a brand new 60-foot IMOCA monohull next year with the goal of taking part in the 2012-2013 Vendée Globe.
The boat, a VPLP-Verdier design, will be a sistership to Michel Desjoyeaux’s Foncia and will be built using the same moulds. François Gabart will have plenty of time to get to know her, as he will be Michel Desjoyeaux’s co-skipper in the Barcelona World Race, which begins on 31st December from the Catalan capital. The schedule looks ideal: no skipper up until now has ever been able to take advantage of an opportunity like this to get used to a boat: sailing around the world in a double-handed race with the twice winner of the Vendée Globe, aboard a boat that is basically a model for his new one. Clearly overwhelmed by the news, François Gabart said that he had been “floating on a cloud for several months.” Quite understandably. Second in the Solitaire du Figaro, winner of the Cap Istanbul and 2010 French Single-Handed Ocean Racing Champion, François will be a serious contender in the next Vendée Globe, which will then be his second round the world race.
