Offshore racing, the time of pioneers
Following on from what was seen previously for dinghy sailing, the post-war period marks a turning point for cruiser-racing, the term used at the time for these competitions that could range from one day to one week on board sailboats that were more often used for family holidays than regatta racing.
Relatively unconcerned by the major events organized on the Channel and on the other side of the Atlantic up until then, French boaters start taking a closer look at the calendars of the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Cruising Club of America, the two leading international organizations. Participation levels gradually ramp up, and some passionate owners, who are sufficiently motivated to start building increasingly high-performance cruisers, achieve their first podium finishes in the late 1940s.
At the start of the following decade, the fleet of live-aboard yachts is however still relatively small in France: barely more than a thousand units, all seaboards combined (since then, this figure has been multiplied by 100…), of which only one in four occasionally take part in cruiser-racing. But a new generation of regatta racers, trained on plans by Herbulot and Sergent, will be game changers, transforming the landscape and even inventing their own rules for racing on the open seas with more affordable boats.
From the bermuda race to offshore racing
Historically, these events are initially dominated by British and American sailors. Thomas Fleming Day, editor of The Rudder – one of the first American boat publications – may be considered the father of modern offshore racing: in 1906, this passionate promoter of offshore sailing on small boats created the famous Bermuda Race, an event reserved for yachts under 12m with a 666 mile route between Brooklyn and the Bermuda Archipelago.
The dignitaries from the New York Yacht Club, advocates of chic yachting with large schooners and professional crews, may well have said that this was madness, but the Bermuda Race went on to become one of the biggest events on the global sailing calendar and later relaxed its rules to welcome competitors of all sizes. From 1928, it will even be associated with a transatlantic race from Bermuda to Europe, allowing American crews to extend their season by competing in the British classics.
After competing in the Bermuda Race, Britain’s Joseph Weston Martyr, a former master mariner and now journalist, sets out the idea of creating an equivalent event on the Channel. This leads to the first-ever Fastnet race in 1925, with seven boats, all flying English flags. The RORC program is then gradually extended, including the creation of the Channel Race in 1928, on a 250 mile triangular route crossing the Channel twice, then the relaunch of the Cowes-Dinard in the 1930s (the race had been held for the first time in 1906 before disappearing at the start of the First World War).
But the few French boats involved in these races have to content themselves with a token role faced with English and American crews who are better trained and supported by a culture that is more open to offshore racing.
The first french successes
The RORC’s creation of a Plymouth – Belle-Île – Bénodet race in 1934, followed by Plymouth – La Rochelle in 1939, is a defining moment, enabling clubs along the Atlantic coastline to get involved and improving the discipline’s visibility in France. In 1948, the Farewell’s victory in the Plymouth – Belle-Île race illustrates the growing motivation of French boaters.
Designed by the Nantes-based engineer-architect Charles Boucard, this 14m sloop belonging to Jean Marin was built the previous year in Saint-Philibert, opposite Trinité-sur-Mer, in the yard of “Gino”, otherwise known as Louis Costantini. This is particularly symbolic as it is on board this same Farewell that Éric Tabarly takes his first steps as a cruiser-race crew member in the mid-1950s…
Other good results follow, such as Fernand Hervé’s victory – all classes combined – in the Plymouth – La Rochelle 1951, on board Eloise, an 11.25m cutter he built himself with plans from François Sergent.
This success is particularly important because, at a time when people swear by English builds, it once again recognizes the know-how of a French builder: Fernand Hervé, a former picture framer and decorator and long-term sailing enthusiast, set up his own boatyard in 1947, at the age of 40, in La Rochelle, next to the Lantern Tower.
And François Sergent is one of the main architects of this new and widespread French interest in the open seas. Born in 1911 in Paris, he very quickly became a regatta enthusiast – racing every Sunday on a Chat at the Cercle de la Voile de Paris – this self-trained architect, who initially studied the liberal arts, starts off working in the development team of Switzerland’s Pierre Staempfli (creator of the Sharpie 9 m2) before setting out on his own.
Following a plan design competition launched by the magazine Le Yacht, he draws up plans in 1946, working with Jean-Jacques Herbulot, for an affordable small cruiser, the Grondin, which is a resounding success, with more than 500 units built – by amateurs and professionals – from its first year. Following the Éloise, François Sergent designs a number of other successful boats: in 1950, two 10.25m yachts, Thetis and Carentan (the latter, built by Bonnin in Lormont, will have a great record in the Mediterranean), then in 1951, the refined Jumbo (built at the Côte de Nacre yard in Courseulles), the excellent class III Aoufa, made by Moguérou in Carantec, and, the following year, the very efficient plan of the Aquilon, with four units built – including three by Fernand Hervé – which will enjoy great success under the name of Marie-Christine II with La Rochelle’s Jean-Claude Menu.
Among the various boats created during this period by François Sergent, one really stands out: the Bonite, with around 40 units launched from 1952 (built primarily by Constructions Navales de Loctudy and Silvant in Conflans). This 7m yacht, built in most cases out of small wooden slats glued together, is the first live-aboard series in France thought out for offshore racing (with the exceptional Belouga, designed in 1946 by Eugène Cornu, intended for sheltered water). The Bonite Gaspard de la Nuit’s outstanding record in the Channel classics highlights the boat’s seafaring qualities.
Alternatives to the RORC
The small live-aboards like the Bonite or Jauge C – an excellent 6.60m plywood live-aboard designed in 1953 by Louis Costantini – race in most cases under the class C rules, with this category created in 1952 in France by the Union Nationale des Croiseurs to welcome units that were not eligible for the RORC class ratings. At the time, the RORC only accepted yachts with a rating of at least 19 feet (which corresponds to a hull length of around 10m).
This rating is based on a mathematical formula taking into account various parameters to assess each boat’s speed potential. It determines the compensated time classification, which is the only way of ensuring equal opportunities to some extent between boats with different performance levels. For a long time, the main classics will be restricted to the RORC’s three classes (class I: 36 to 70 feet, class II: 27 to under 36 feet, class III: 19 to under 27 feet), with certain restrictions, such as class III boats only obtaining the right to compete in the Fastnet event from 1953.
For a complete view of the classifications in place in the 1950s, we must also mention the cruiser-racers (CR) class launched by the Scandinavian Yachting Union in 1949, modeled on the metric class, aiming to enable boats with comparable potential to race in real time.
In France, this will notably inspire the architect Eugène Cornu, who creates the 12m CR Striana and Hallali with incredible records – built respectively in 1955 and 1956 at the Jouët yard in Sartrouville – as well as the highly elegant Men Cren, a 9m CR launched in 1955 by Pichavant at Pont-Labbé.
Another Cornu plan – also built by Jouët – marks a major turning point at the start of this decade: the class I Janabel, belonging to Jacques Barbou, is in 1952 the first French boat to compete in the Bermuda race then the Transatlantic. These pioneers include the class III Danycan – another Eugène Cornu design – built in 1949 at Pierre Delmez’s yard in Perreux-sur-Marne, then based out of La Rochelle, which enjoyed a lot of success at the hands of its second owner, Michel de Rosanbo, who also had a young crew member on board called Tabarly.
Other architects embraced this quest for performance, such as Jean Knocker with his Peter Pan, built in 1953 by Pouvreau, or Henri Dervin, who designed a number of plans including the very good class III Kraken II, released by the Le Gourriérec yard in Ploemeur in 1949.
The Mediterranean is of course involved in the development of cruiser-racing. Launched in 1953, the legendary Giraglia connects a French port and an Italian port each year, while turning around the Giraglia Lighthouse to the north of Cap Corse. And from the mid-1950s, a large number of competitions – with routes of up to 200 miles – race up and down the entire coast, from Roussillon to Menton. They are often organized liaising with clubs from neighboring countries, such as the races between Sète, Port-Vendres and Arenys de Mar on the Spanish side, or from Saint-Raphaël to San Remo, Alghero (Sardinia) and Anzio in Italy.
And there is no shortage of talented builders in ports across the south of France, including Jean Boudignion, on the banks of the Arles canal, Haris in Antibes, or Édouard Chabert in Marseille, in the Anse du Pharo, who in 1958 launches Stemael III – also on Sergent plans – a RORC class II, on which Xavier de Roux, future FFYV president, wins several events. Also in Marseille, in 1959, Chantier Naval du Lacydon releases an astonishing regatta machine, the Flying Forty, a collaboration between Jacques Gaubert and a promising young architect with a bright future, Michel Bigoin.
Lightness in the air
Despite this fresh and widespread interest, French racers still struggle to challenge the British and American dominance of major events. As illustrated by the results of the Admiral’s Cup, a team competition created in 1957, for which France will take a long time to be able to get together three large boats that will be competitive at the highest level.
The decisive step will be taken by a new generation, breaking away from the heaviness of traditional yachting. The movement starts in Le Havre with young racers trained on light dinghies on the Seine, between Rouen and Duclair. They dream of racing on the open sea and, unable to find opportunities in the few Le Havre or Deauville class IIs or IIIs taking part in cruiser-racing, decide to strike out on their own. Their model is the Junior Offshore Group, founded in 1950 by Patrick Ellam with John Illingworth and other leading names from the British sailing scene to encourage ocean racing on the small boats left out by the RORC.
They cross the Channel with their Herbulot, Corsaire – which will soon release a JOG version, with a fixed keel and a more protected cockpit than the standard model – or Cap Horn plans. At the same time, they establish a sportier sailing style, not hesitating to keep hiking with lifelines during night-time routes, and quickly rival the best English racers. The fans of these affordable boats include the Maupas brothers – Alain and Didier – and Alain Gliksman who, along with other enthusiasts, will be the driving forces behind the creation of the French equivalent of the JOG in the early 1960s: the Groupe des Croiseurs Légers, a prolific incubator for new talents, which will later merge with the Union Nationale des Croiseurs to form the UNCL.
From 1962, Alain and Didier Maupas, close friends of Jean-Pierre Jouët, will be part of the success on the water of the all-new Golif, the first polyester live-aboard sailboat from the Sartrouville yard. More importantly, they will play an essential role in a genuine revolution in 1964: France’s first-ever victory in the RORC championship, all classes combined, with the Pénélope II – a series version of the class III Pen ar Bed designed by Pierre Lemaire – with their usual accomplices, Hubert Lepicard, Jackie Destailleurs and Roland de Greef. This marks the end of the English monopoly, and the start of a new chapter…
