The Race - with stops

Bruno Peyron unveils plans for another new round the world race, that may conflict with the Volvo Ocean Race

Bruno Peyron has formally announced that he will be staging a new round the world race with stopovers for the 'G class' maxi multihulls. He also will be setting up a championship for the new 'giants' which will include The Race, the new round the world race, record attempts and passages to be agreed with the other skippers.

Peyron was going to wait before annoucing this, but told madfor sailing he felt there was no reason to hold off any longer. "We took this decision because it is the answer the market was expecting," said the Orange skipper.

The new event, which Peyron is at present calling The Race Tour, will start in 2006 and will run consecutively every two years between his non-stop around the world event, The Race. The next running of The Race will take place in 2004. "It will be specifially formatted so that it is not too long and there are not too many stops," said Peyron of the new event. "We have the speed to go where we want. Before The Race I was contacted by some companies in the Asian markets. I can answer them now."

Peyron feels that there are likely to be around four legs but the exact course will depend upon both sponsors and competitors. He is also considering a way of making it interesting (and cheap) to tie in countries The Race Tour passes.

"We are going to work on a new system of pitstops so that maybe you can have a buoy or a passage in all the strategic markets." He gives the example of the leg back to Europe where the boats could pass through such pitstops in France, UK, Belgium and Holland. "It costs too much money to make a long stopover. It is very possible to arrange something, such as passing a buoy and even regrouping the fleet for a restart. It will cost nothing for you to have TV exposure, and you don't have to stay there for one and a half months. All these ideas are on the table at the moment".

Peyron says that the class rules for The Race Tour will be the same as The Race itself, ie there will be no limit to the boats, other than that they cannot use stored energy to handle the sails. This is the only limiting factor. "Any modification of the rules will have to be taken two years before," he told madfor sailing. "At the moment it is in stone for the four years coming - for The Race and The Race Tour 2006". So any proposed amendments such a length limitation, which some parties involved are keen tis introduced, will only be introduced for The Race 2008.

Peyron is considering the following rough program:

2004 - The Race and European circuit, including records such as the Transmed, round Britain and Ireland, etc.
2005 - Jules Verne Trophy and 5-6 other events.
2006 - The Race Tour
2007 - probably a major record such as New York to San Francisco or London to China.

This will form the basis of a championship for the G class, where major events, such as The Race or The Race Tour will score 10 points and records or shorter races, less according to their difficulty or significance.

"The other thing," says Peyron, "is that it will remove all the pressure. If you can't make The Race you can join the circuit later." Many of the skippers considering The Race are hoping that it will be delayed by one year to allow themselves enough time to find sponsorship and build boats.

Peyron is keen that there are as many events as possible to maximise sponsor's return. Speaking as someone who is currently in negotiations with corporate backers he says that selling a program of events over a time period is easier than just finding a sponsor for one single event. "From the challenger side, it is easier to sell. Believe me, I know. I'm selling it now..."

A formal presentation will take place at Paris Boat Show in December.

"I think that it is excellent news," Tracy Edwards, owner of the maxi cat Maiden II told madfor sailing. "It takes such time and effort to put one of these projects together. We've got a three year project. To have someone putting some structure together for that and involve the other multihulls sitting around doing nothing - it's very exciting".

"It'll start bringing it all together. A lot of poeple are leaning in this direction. To have some structure to it and something sponsors can buy into that's really good".

The announcement is likely to cause some worry within the Volvo Ocean Race organisation as inevitably if the new event succeeds it may draw both sponsorship and top names from their event.

"I think it is great. I commend Bruno on his multihull race," said Grant Dalton, who skippered the maxi-catamaran Club Med (now Maiden II) to victory in The Race and is now skippering Amer Sports One in the Volvo Ocean Race. "I think there is room in the world for a monohull and a multihulll race. For someone like me with a foot in both camps I'd love to be involved."

On the issue of whether the event will detract from the Volvo, Dalts hopes not. "I don't know where the Volvo is going, but I can guess where they are headed. There was always a lot of thought that The Race would hurt the Volvo and the Volvo hurt The Race, but they are different markets and they are different programmes. So I'd say it's too early to judge that".

"I think it's bloody marvellous," he added. "I can't do The Race in 2004, but if there's a circuit to do The Race and a non-stop race I'll certainly like to be there. But I want to be involved with the Volvo too. Whatever happens I want to take until February off to do the Iron Man. It's impossible for anyone in this event to be involved with a new boat campaign for The Race. And I have no reason to do a half-arsed job. This [Amer Sports One] has been a half arsed job and I will not do that again".

It can be no coincidence that Peyron's revelations come prior to that of Volvo next week, who will be making an announcement about the future of the Volvo Ocean Race.