Racing and cruising
In the pages of the various boat magazines, the adverts published reflect this shift. From the early 1980s, the yards increasingly refer to the good racing results achieved by their boats in these adverts. And their staff get directly involved on the water, leaving nothing to chance as they build records that speak for themselves.
A quick glance at the rankings of the 1981 La Rochelle Week event is enough to confirm this: in the largest IOR class, we find Sea Lab – a meticulously prepared Gib Sea 126 sailed by the team from Gibert Marine – competing against Snifour, the Dufour 4800 skippered by Bruno Troublé, one of the heads of the La Rochelle yard and an internationally renowned regatta racer. The competition swings in favor of Snifour, which already won the SNIM international Mediterranean boat week event in Marseille a few weeks earlier, and Dufour’s communications team make sure that the press is well aware of this. The V class in the same event sets the stage for another direct confrontation between two “yard” boats, optimized for racing and sailed by very good crews, who are often employees or closely associated with the builder. Following a week of varied routes, the Rush prototype with Bruno Coutand, the dedicated skipper for Jeanneau boats, ultimately triumphs over the King First, the First Evolution skippered by Jérôme Langlois, who will redeem himself a few months later by winning the Half Ton Cup. The following year, the classic La Rochelle event attracts even more professionals. They include Bruno Troublé – this time at the helm of the all-new Dufour 39 – locked in a battle with another champion, Éric Duchemin, skippering the latest model from Bénéteau, the First 38. In the IV class, François Chalain, one of the pillars of the Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie yard, brilliantly defends the company’s colors on board the Lanturlu VII, a First 32. And in the handicap cruiser category, the brands are just as involved, with a tight battle between the refined Dufour 3800 with the excellent racer Philippe Machefaux at the helm and the Feeling 920 skippered by Éric Cadro, a manager from the Kirié yard.
A rite of passage for fast cruiser
The heading is now set for everyone: builders of “performance” sailboats get organized to ensure that their products are prominently featured at the season’s main events, and enthusiasts carefully track the results of these races to find out whether the latest model seen at the boat show delivers on its promises.
Over the years, as new models are released, the First 42, Sun Shine, Sun Rise, First 35s5, Sun Legende 41, First 41s5, Sun Magic 44 and First 45f5 – to mention but a few – will successively take center stage, with the two rival giants, Bénéteau and Jeanneau, dominating the landscape. This also benefits from new platforms that build up a significant reach with the growing popularity of events such as the EDHEC Sailing Cup, which brings together thousands of students alongside leading skippers, and above all the Spi Ouest-France. Launched in 1979 and led by Gilles Le Baud and André Facque, the Spi Ouest-France brings together more than 100 boats to compete in the third event, before passing the milestone of 300 eight years later and reaching 500 in the 1990s… Reserved for liveaboard sailboats, this event compensates for the relative decline in “generalist” regattas, which were spread across a large number of different categories and generated less interest. Held each year in La Trinité-sur-Mer at Easter, the Spi quickly becomes the leading pre-season event.
While the professional sailing teams often take the top positions, it is worth noting that the vast majority of the fleet consists of owner boats skippered by amateurs. Among them, the most experienced sailors find further motivation in the fact that they can compare themselves racing side-by-side with professional crews from the various yards. For them, it is a matter of honor to try and beat them, and they regularly achieve this.
Versatility versus one-designs
If we look at the participation figures for the major classic events, as well as local races, it becomes apparent that only a small percentage of buyers of fast cruisers actually race. The others are nevertheless sensitive to the positive image associated with successful boats and the guarantees they offer in terms of good seafaring qualities. This market is particularly successful as the models offered not only perform well under sail, but also offer the comfort of true cruisers. The popular architects on this niche, including Jean Berret, Jean-Marie Finot, German Frers, Ron Holland, Doug Peterson, Jacques Fauroux, Tony Castro, Philippe Briand and Bruce Farr, know how to successfully combine efficient hulls with generous living spaces, while the interior finishes offered by the builders are now far removed from the austerity that often characterized models from the previous decade.
Alongside these highly versatile models, a small market develops with more radical options: offshore racing one-designs. Pioneering this genre, the First Class 10 and the Sélection from Jeanneau – 10.45m and 10.90m long respectively – are presented at the CNIT in January 1984. But the sails are already set, at least from a commercial perspective, as the second model has been chosen to become the official boat for the Sailing Tour of France, replacing the Écume de Mer, First 30 and Rush Royale, the mainstays of this event since 1978. The Sélection will benefit from this momentum to become very widespread – selling over 300 units – for a sailing model that is far more spartan than fast cruisers of the same size. Bénéteau then launches the First Class Europe, an 11m model focused on performance, followed by the Figaro one-design, which, from 1990, will mark the start of a new era for this famous solo race.
Series on the open seas
Another space increasingly opens up to production fast cruisers: ocean racing. In spring 1981, two First 35s and two Sun Fizz crews set off in the Double-Handed Transatlantic Race, between Plymouth and Newport, and finish the race without any issues ahead of a number of rivals that are considered to be faster, including multihulls. With its greater length, the Sun Fizz, skippered by Patrice and Jean-Michel Carpentier, finishes at the head of the quartet in 20 days and 5 hours, just over a day ahead of the First 35 sailed by Patrick Éliès and Dominique Hardy, which wins this Transatlantic race in the V class, the category for boats under 35 feet. Their crossing time deserves a closer look: these two moderate-sized production boats (11.75m and 10.71m respectively) took several days less than the winner of the Ostar 1968, the large racing boat Sir Thomas Lipton skippered by Geoffrey Williams, which was over 17m long. The Sun Fizz with the Carpentier brothers on board even went quicker over the entire route than the Pen Duick IV, the 20m trimaran of Alain Colas, who won in 1972!
One year later, two First 42s and a Trinidad from Jeanneau take part in the major event racing from La Rochelle to New Orleans. And at the finish of the 1982 Route du Rhum, in Pointe-à-Pitre, we find two Sun Shines that complete the event in perfect condition after a 24-day crossing, very close to much larger monohulls and multihulls.
The same phenomenon can be seen over the following years in other classic ocean events with production yachts from the main French yards – Bénéteau, Jeanneau, Dufour, Kirié, etc. – sometimes with technical support from the brand concerned. The sporting stakes are limited of course, as these boats have no chance of competing with the quickest models, but their participation has a real impact for both the builders, who benefit from outstanding returns on experience, and boat users themselves, who can appreciate the offshore capabilities of their dream boats. The evolution of the types of sailing boats used for long-distance cruising is also significant from this perspective: whereas in the previous decade, voyages like this were limited almost exclusively to very specific “cruiser” units, more and more recreational sailors looking to reach the Caribbean or even sail around the world are placing their trust in standard polyester models.
A test lab for recreational boats
The focus on performance, in both professionals’ communications and the thought processes of recreational boat users, is not limited to just analyzing the achievements of production boats. It also covers participation in exceptional projects, such as developing a prototype for prestigious competitions. In 1980, the Dufour yard makes sure to mention that the Dufour 9000 was designed by the same architect – Johan Valentijn – and built in the same workshops as the 12m JI France 3, which, with Marcel Bich and Bruno Troublé at the helm, dominated the British challenger in the America’s Cup elimination rounds.
In terms of the Admiral’s Cup, the Wauquiez yard highlights that its Centurion 42, designed by Ed Dubois, is inspired by the Admiral’s boat Indulgence, which won the English selections in 1983. Bénéteau goes even further in this field, getting involved at the highest level from the 1981 event by building the Lady Be Good, a prototype version of the First 42 – designed by Frers – skippered by Éric Duchemin and Helmer Pedersen. The benefits of this commitment will be seen at the 1985 Admiral’s Cup, with the victory in the individual rankings of the Phoenix, an English competitor designed exclusively in France. Phoenix is part of a limited prototype series (the First 40 One Ton, which later inspires the First Class 12 series) for which the architects Jean Berret, Jean-Marie Finot and Jacques Fauroux pooled their talents. Several boats built on this model will also make a name for themselves, such as the Coyote, Fière Lady and Fair Lady, as well as the Irish Justine V and the American Glory.
Also looking to benefit from the test lab conditions offered by high-level competition, Jeanneau creates its own structure with Jeanneau Techniques Avancées, led by Jean-François de Prémorel, which will build all sorts of racing models – including large ocean-racing multihulls – and test materials and methods that are different from those used for large series. The models to emerge from JTA’s hangars include the three 60-foot trimarans that dominated the podium in the 1990 Route du Rhum event, starting with the famous Pierre 1er skippered by Florence Arthaud.
References to competition are an ever-present feature in adverts or brochures at the time. Even Gibert Marine, which had distanced itself from competition following the commercial failure of its Gib Sea Plus 90 (whose prototype won the 1982 Solitaire du Figaro with Philippe Poupon) comes back to it, building – with the Hervé yard – the Admiral’s Cup contender Turquoise, designed by Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt for the 1987 race. But it is once again Bénéteau that secures the “Holy Grail” by building on a Briand design the two-tonner Corum Rubis, which, following its first participation in 1989, will two years later be part of the first French team to win the Admiral’s Cup.
