A chaotic start to a career
Designed by the Finot-Conq firm, this 60-foot wide and powerful boat had the particularity of having two roofs separated by a central piano. She was then skippered by Marc Thiercelin, who had already completed four single-handed round the world voyages.
Christened with great pomp and ceremony near the Eiffel Tower, this sister-ship to Hugo Boss 2007 was launched three months before the start of the Vendée Globe. This machine was at the start in Les Sables-d'Olonne with a talented skipper, but lacked sufficient timing to be up to speed. Marc, like two other competitors, dismasted two days after the start. At that point, a terrible depression hit the Bay of Biscay and decimated part of the fleet.
After breaking the record for crossing the Mediterranean, Marc took the start of the 2009 Jacques Vabres with Christopher Pratt as a crew member, but had to retire when his keel head broke. After a major refit to improve reliability, DCNS finally finished its first race with Christopher Pratt, finishing 8th in the 2010 Route du Rhum.
As part of a training and retraining programme, Marc Thiercelin is back at the helm of DCNS on the Jacques Vabre, co-skippered with ski champion Luc Alphand. But they will have to retire again due to electrical problems.
The 7th art invites itself into ocean racing
This IMOCA has been chosen to appear in a film directed by Christophe Offenstein on the theme of the Vendée Globe. En solitaire", the film features a skipper played by Francois Cluzet, who is forced to replace an injured Guillaume Canet at short notice to take the start of the race.
In order to get closer to reality, the navigation scenes were shot on the 60-foot boat off Lorient, to the great displeasure of the film crew, who are not used to filming behind the closed doors of an IMOCA.
A first Vendée Globe with Éric Bellion
Bought out by Eric Bellion, the former DCNS, renamed Comme un seul homme, returns to CDK. The bar system is reviewed and a structural overhaul is adopted. Co-skippered by Sam Goodshild and Éric Bellion, he finished 7th in the 2015 Jacques Vabre. Éric will then finish in 9th place in the last Vendée Globe 2016.
A powerful and versatile Finot Conq plan for Damien Seguin
Damien recovered the boat in April 2018 and took 6th place in the Route du Rhum. Based on the lessons learnt from his first transatlantic race with Damien, the boat underwent a major refit in his shipyard under the leadership of Jean Le Cam. The ballast tanks are modified, an electric motor is installed and the daggerboards are changed for angled profiles, making her almost 600 kg lighter.
Damien, who was born without a left hand, is a double Paralympic champion on 2.4mR. The only adaptation to his handicap is visible on the winch column, which was developed to his morphology.
Damien finished 14th in the last Jacques Vabre alongside Yoann Richomme. A second work camp was carried out this winter. The double roof has been removed in favour of a single cap. For reliability reasons, an internal combustion engine has been installed instead of the electric model. The rudders and boom were changed, as well as the keel jacks.
Jean Le Cam and Damien Seguin have been working together to improve the performance of his boat. In view of Damien's very good results with this 2008 boat, we can say that this collaboration has been fruitful. With this simple, reliable and light boat, it is a good bet that Damien will be at the forefront of daggerboard boats.
Apicil Group - Damien Seguin
- Sail number : FRA1000
- Former names of the boat: Comme Un Seuul Homme - DCNS
- Architect : Groupe Finot-Conq
- Job-site : Multiplast
- Launch date: August 10, 2008
- Width: 5.85m
- Displacement (weight): 8.5t
- Number of drifts: 2
- Sail area upwind : 350m2
- Sail area downwind: 610m2
