A mixed start to a career
Built in the United Kingdom by the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team, this 60-foot yacht experienced many setbacks at the beginning of its career. Engaged in the Barcelona World Race 2008, she had to abandon off South Africa on broken rudders.
Fate was to bitterly affect the next skipper, Sébastien Josse, then in the colours of BT. He had to give up the English Transat (broken headboard), the Vendée Globe (rudder broken following a capsize) and the Jacques Vabre (cracked roof).
A sequence of podiums
Taken over in 2010 by Roland Jourdain, this machine will undergo a major reliability upgrade by the Veolia team. And it's paying off! Roland won the 2010 Route du Rhum ahead of Armel Le Cleac'h and Marc Guillemot.
Bought out by Alex Thomson, he will finish 2nd in the Transat Jacques Vabres with Guillermo Altadill. Taking advantage of the return delivery, Alex beat the record for crossing the Atlantic solo, held by Bernard Stamm for 10 years.
Alex will then finish third in the 2012 Vendée Globe. The skipper of Hugo Boss becomes the third Briton to climb on the Vendée Globe podium after Ellen MacArthur and Mike Golding.
Renamed Neutrogena, it is led to second place in the Barcelona World Race 2014 by Guillermo Altadill and Jose Muñoz. In 2015, it was sold to Nicolas Boidevezi, who has plans to race in the 2016 Vendée Globe.
But due to a lack of funds, it is finally Japan's Kojiro Shiraishi who will be at the helm during the 2016 edition. Kojiro will make a fine start to the race, before dismasting in the Indian Ocean.
Benjamin Dutreux's perseverance
Confident in the potential of this 60-foot boat, Benjamin and his boat captain Thomas Cardin didn't hesitate to go and get it in Yokohama, Japan. Repatriated to Europe by cargo ship, it underwent a refit before taking a fine 19th place in the Transat Jacques Vabre, whereas the duo had sailed very little in the 60-foot boat.
During its stopover in Salvador de Bahia, a passenger boat collided with the vessel then moored to the pontoon, causing a hole in the starboard side of the hull. Benjamin and his team temporarily repaired the damage, then he brought his 60-foot boat back to Les Sables on his own to validate his qualification for the Vendée Globe.
A major project was undertaken to make the machine as reliable as possible and to repair the consequences of the collision in Salvador. All the on-board systems (electronic, hydraulic) have been overhauled and Omia Water Family will be fitted with a new wardrobe for its world tour.
Remarkably prepared in Les Sables-d'Olonne, this monohull is still capable of making its mark among the fleet of classic dinghies in this 2020 Vendée Globe.
Omia Water Family - Benjamin Dutreux
- Baptismal Name: Eole Sixty
- Sail number : ENG09
- Former names of the boat: Spirit of Yukoh - Neutrogena - Hugo Boss - Estrella Damm - Veolia Environnement - BT
- Architect: Bruce Farr Design
- Job-site: Offshore Challenge - Cowes
- Launch date: July 03, 2007
- Width: 5.85m
- Displacement (weight): 8t
- Number of drifts: 2
- Presence of foils: No
- Sail area upwind : 300m2
- Sail area downwind: 700m2
