Enlightened spectator: Kito de Pavant

Having finished second in the Multi 50 class yesterday, Kito de Pavant has been following the IMOCA 60 race with keen interest. On the pontoons of Itajaï, he delivers his analysis to us.

“It’s been 6 or 7 years since I first became a member of the IMOCA class so inevitably, even though I was sailing on a Multi 50 in this particular Transat Jacques Vabre (Kito de Pavant was just pipped to the post by Fenêtre Cardinal, alongside Yves le Blévec), I’ve been tracking the course taken by my friends with a huge amount of interest. Whilst I was receiving the rankings relating to us, I made the most of the opportunity to have a look at the ftp site for the IMOCA ranking. As soon as I had a brief moment, I would have a look at the competitors’ positions on the chart too so as to see what was going on.

In fact I’m very happy to note that the two lead boats (PRB and Safran at the morning ranking on 23/11) are very similar to Groupe Bel, a boat that I’m currently attempting to purchase. The hull beneath the waterline on these three boats is identical. We can see in this race that they are very quick boats and I’m really happy about that because we were kind of the trailblazers for this type of hull section together with Safran.

In reality the top five boats are very uniform in terms of speed. Their current ranking was essentially played out with short tactical moves and key positioning in the descent of the Atlantic.

Ultimately those who took less risk and didn’t go so far west have come off best. You could say that the ranking is a reflection of the east/west separation. The Doldrums played the role of Justice of the Peace once again among all the classes. Within this system, PRB and MACIF came out in the best shape and it’s pretty curious to see that those who made technical pit-stops were leading prior to MACIF’s dismasting”.

CF