Girl power in IMOCA - an early season all-female training session catches the eye

They came together for a week-long offshore session at Port-la-Forêt in Brittany as they prepare to go solo in the white heat of IMOCA competition for the first time, at the helm of three state-of-the-art foilers in Bonafous’s Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner, Dorange’s Initiatives-Coeur and Clapcich’s 11th Hour Racing.

The chance to sail together and test each other proved the perfect start to the pre-season ahead of the first event, the 1000 Race which sets sail from Port-la-Forêt on Sunday bound for the Fastnet Rock and back to Concarneau. All three skippers will be among the seven taking part.

Bonafous, who made a spectacular start to her IMOCA career last season by winning the Rolex Fastnet Race, enjoyed the work they did together at their mini-offshore training camp. “The other girls had clearly worked hard over the winter - I had no doubt about that - but they were ready,”she said. “Even though I had about a week’s head start with getting my boat back on the water, it was still challenging, serious and rigorous. 

“We even noted that it might not be a coincidence that the three of us were back on the water earlier - maybe we were better organised over the winter, or we had set ourselves the goal of getting back to sailing early?”

The irrepressible Clapcich, buoyed by her second place last season alongside Will Harris on the Transat Café L’OR, says she learned a lot from the session with Bonafous and Dorange. 

Determined to promote equal opportunities for people in sailing and racing, she too couldn’t help but notice with satisfaction that the first three skippers on the water this year were women.

“Having three women on the water training against each other, helping each other, debriefing together has been really, really nice and in a super-collaborative environment,”she said. “And yeah, I think we sailed pretty well, all of us - we learned a lot.”

For all three women the 1000 Race is the start of a challenging solo season with the main tests being the third staging of the Vendée Arctique in June and then the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in November. Bonafous says her pre-season work has been all about fine tuning her technique on board so she will be as ready as she can be to race solo for the first time in a 60ft foiling speedster.

“We didn't spend too long on the winter re-fit, in order to prioritise a higher volume of sailing,”explained the 30-year-old skipper who, in 2022, became the first woman to score a podium finish in a leg of the Solitaire du Figaro. “I felt that was the main goal for the start of the year: to learn how to handle the boat, operate it, and get comfortable sailing it alone.”

For Bonafous, the 1000 Race will be something of a training run for the first big challenge - the Vendée Arctique up to the Arctic Circle and back from Les Sables d’Olonne. “That’s a much bigger challenge, because the weather conditions could be quite tough and the race will be long. I’m glad to be able to sail a lot beforehand to prepare,”she said.

“From a sporting perspective,”she added, “I’d almost place the Vendée Arctique and the Route du Rhum on an equal footing - even though the media exposure, the partner stakes and overall prestige are higher for the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe. In terms of difficulty though, I think there are more unknowns in the Vendée Arctique.”

Clapcich, 38, has also been working hard on her methodology as she contemplates racing solo in IMOCA for the first time - how she executes manoeuvres, getting to know her boat better and her timing and rhythm. 

“For this first race, the hope is really to be mindful of how I’m dealing with things on board - you know, taking maybe a little bit more time to do each manoeuvre - thinking about the right steps, not damaging the boat, being always one step ahead with the weather and on the right sail at the right moment. So it’s not really about the result, but about the process of how to get there and how to be prepared for the entire season,”she said.

Bonafous says this will not be a results-driven year for her - it will all be about finishing races, avoiding breakdowns, and trying to fight at the front against the best boats in the IMOCA fleet. “I don't like to talk about numerical goals,” said this most analytical of skippers, “because this is still effectively the beginning of my solo season. It's more about the approach. I have a boat that performs well, and I think I’m capable of achieving good things, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.”

For all three women the ultimate goal remains the next Vendée

Globe in 2028 which will be Dorange’s second but the first for Clapcich and Bonafous. “For me, it’s really important to just keep building experience from these races for a lot of miles, learning each time in a good way to prepare for the 2028 Vendée Globe,” summarised Clapcich. 

Ed Gorman