October 8, 2024

BT Extreme 40 In Amsterdam (Photo by Thierry Martinez /Sea & Co/BT Team Ellen)
BT Extreme 40 In Amsterdam (Photo by Thierry Martinez /Sea & Co/BT Team Ellen)

 

 

Both BT boats and crews are in the final stages of preparation for the biggest events of their season… There is just a week to go before the final event of the iShares Cup in Almeria, Spain and Nick Moloney and the BT Extreme 40 crew will have to put in a strong performance to secure their current overall 5th place. For the BT IMOCA 60 team, the countdown has started for Sébastien Josse and Jean François Cuzon who will start the double handed Transat Jacques Vabre, the pinnacle race of the IMOCA season, in just over one month…

After five events across Europe in the 2009 iShares Cup, BT is currently in 5th place just behind the world’s best multihull skippers – Loick Peyron (Oman Sail Renaisance), Franck Cammas (Groupama 40) , Yann Guichard (Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild). Not a bad place to be perhaps, but the BT team, who have finished third on the podium at the last two annual iShares Cup series, are disappointed that the podium this time is beyond their reach.  BT skipper, Nick Moloney, remains positive and knows they must put in a good performance to fend off the other teams vying for position:
“Almeria is the last event and the sailing conditions should be completely different to Kiel and Amsterdam, where we had our worst results. In Spain we will have an open race course and more wind, and we clearly are better in those conditions. We are still 5th on the overall leaderbord, we are determined and we will fight until the end of the last race!”

This Wednesday (30.9.09) BT skippers Sébastien Josse and Jean-François Cuzon took a break in their training and headed to Paris for the official press conference of the Transat Jacques Vabre. The gathering of the 14 IMOCA duos who will compete in the Transat Jacques Vabre starting on 8th November, put the race under scrutiny and an intriguing tactical option that could divide this very competitive fleet of latest generation IMOCA 60s. For Sébastien and Jean-Francois a victory in the IMOCA class of the Fastnet race was a reassuring win, but they know the competition in this year’s Transat Jacques Vabre will be intense. Racing against the likes of Michel Desjoyeaux’s Foncia,  Kito de Pavant’s Groupe Bel and Roland Jourdain’s Veolia Environnement all who have recently been sharpening their racing skills by competed in the Istanbul Europe Race.

BT Open 60 (Photo by Thierry Martinez/Sea & Co/BT Team Ellen)
BT Open 60 Sébastien Josse and Jean François Cuzon (Photo by Thierry Martinez/Sea & Co/BT Team Ellen)

 

 

Anyway, the race will be quite interesting with a lot of strategic decisions, the main one being to go North or not – I think the fleet could be divided into two groups after the start. One pack will favour the direct and shorter way, the other will try to reach the Trade Winds. With the first option we can always have surprises, we will have to wait and see if it works.
“I’m really motivated to go this way, tactics and decisions will be important, and we don’t have a lot of statistics about forecasts over there. This is a new challenge for the Transat Jacques Vabre, and the competitors’ level of enthusiasm and interest has risen with that new factor.”

 

In September 2007, Ellen launched the BT Team Ellen project in Paris – a three-year partnership with BT through to 2010. The project includes the BT IMOCA 60 skippered by French skipper, Sébastien Josse, and Nick Moloney, skipper of the BT Extreme 40. Ellen’s sailing projects include the Archipelago Raid on the BT F18 plus helming the BT Extreme 40 in the Round the Island Race as well as supporting BT’s CSR worldwide programme and continuing with her commitment to pursuing and communicating how to lead a more sustainable life on land. A decade-long association with BT as communications partner to the sailing team has now matured into a well-matched title partner relationship.
 

 

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