Mariner’s Diary No. 1 by Edgard Vincens

A look back at the end of the 2022 Season

Mariner’s Diary No. 1: A look back at the technical and sporting lessons of the 2022 sailing race season.

For the 2022 season, I wanted to be involved in an ambitious project and to familiarize myself with the latest generation of Class40 yachts. Like all boats that are built new in the shipyard, the preparation, the choice of materials, of builders and suppliers are vital factors for success.

In the very first trials, we paid the price of some suppliers who hadn’t followed the specifications to the letter. This hampered our progress in races and in terms of technical innovation.

A new boat requires a lot of adjustment to make it reliable and fast: it’s essential to be supported by the best suppliers in the field.

Our first three races taught us a lot about how to optimize our speed and we really put our energy into learning from our shortcomings and mistakes. This season is about much more than just maintaining our ranking. The Class40 category is full of very experienced skippers who make very few tactical mistakes – this makes the competition even tougher and more exciting.

I’m very proud to have participated in the upgrades to the new boat and its improved reliability. We had a difficult start but we were able to correct most of the imperfections.

Unfortunately, a structural problem caused the keel to fail on August 1st and the boat capsized. My co-skipper, who was in the qualifying race for the Route du Rhum, was rescued safely by the Spanish lifeguards.

The boat is going to be refurbished with some great improvements that will make it more reliable and more efficient.

This experience has made my approach to preparation even more stringent, and to leave nothing to chance.

Our partner, the Marc Lombard design office, is the most experienced in Class40 construction, and the latest version seems to be the fastest in the fleet. The V1D2 shipyard, which builds and enhances the boats reliability, has been a leader in ocean sailboat construction for more than 30 years. I chose to work with partners near the Port of La Rochelle where my boat will be based.

• INCIDENCE has enormous experience of making sails for Class40s and provides individualized after-sales service,
• We chose Marechal to manufacture our mast.