The Class40 brings together 12.19 m long monohulls in a very well defined gauge, in coastal and offshore races where experienced amateur racers meet professional skippers. A sail area limited to a maximum of 115 m2 upwind, a minimum displacement of 4,500 kg and a draught of 3 metres are the main characteristics of monohulls.
With reasonable budgets, this class attracts a lot of sailors and this year will be no exception to the rule with 53 solo sailors ready to sail in découdre?! The objectif?? Do better than the reference time established by the Spanish Alex Pella in 2014 or 16 days 17 hours 47 minutes 8 seconds.
Fearful boats
Competition will be fierce with recent boats enjoying a slight performance bonus. About fifteen boat skipper duets stand out from the crowd with Class40s that are getting closer and closer to their big brothers of 60 feet, even if they cannot use foils or tilting keels. Among the favourites are Phil Sharp (Imerys Clean Energy, who won in 2006 and has been winning podiums and even victories since the resumption of his Manuard plan two seasons ago.
Louis Duc[Carac] and Yoann Richomme[Veedol] also look set to be formidable in their new Lombard designs, with their very large hulls.
We will also have to watch Samuel Manuard's plans for Nicolas Troussel[Corum], Maxime Sorel[V & B], Arthur Le Vaillant[Leyton], Luke Berry[Lamotte-Module Création] or Aymeric Chapellier[Aina-Enfance et Avenir], fourth generation of a plan that already has an exceptional list of achievements. In front of them, Guillaume Verdier's drawings remain sure values for Kito de Pavant[Made in Midi] or Antoine Carpentier[Custo Pol], but it will also be necessary to watch the defending yacht, this time led by Loïc Fequet[Tibco] or Sabrosa by Sébastien Marsset[Camping Tohapi].
A total of 17 architects will be represented in this class in Saint-Malo with increasingly powerful designs: increasingly tight hulls, increasingly round bows, increasingly protected cockpits or more sober layouts.
Some of them will be faster than the IMOCAs of the years 2000?!
Experienced sailors
We will also find in this class, three former winners of La Solitaire du Figaro[Kito de Pavant, Nicolas Troussel, Yoann Richomme] not to mention all those who have already participated[Sam Goodchild, Nicolas Jossier, Claire Pruvot, Halvard Mabire] or those who performed the Transat Jacques Vabre or The Transat[Maxime Sorel, Antoine Carpentier, Louis Duc, Arthur Le Vaillant, Aymeric Chapellier, Bertrand Delesne, Loïc Fequet, Arthur Hubert, Hiroshi Kitada, Robin Marais, Miranda Merron, Olivier Roussey, Phil Sharp].
