The team for the upcoming The Ocean Race, Guyot Environnement - Team Europe, with German former Starboat World Champion Robert Stanjek on board, has announced another new signing.
Frenchman Sébastien Simon will act as Benjamin Dutreux's replacement on individual legs and take on strategic tasks on land in the areas of performance analysis, meteorology and navigation.
The former German Offshore Team Germany, which won The Ocean Race Europe with Robert Stanjek, Benjamin Dutreux, Phillip Kasüske and British circumnavigator Annie Lush, merged with Frenchman Dutreux's team in May of this year. Dutreux's next goal was actually to take part in the Vendée Globe 2024, but the merger has now added The Ocean Race. For the German team, the merger also means a newer boat than the previous "Einstein", which was built for the 2012 Vendée Globe and not yet equipped with foils. And even if they had succeeded, their competitiveness would have been questionable.
The French team's newer boat is four years younger and came second in the 2016/17 Vendée Globe as the "Hugo Boss". It has already been fitted with foils and served the 11th Hour Racing team as a training boat for The Ocean Race. "This boat is already well developed and prepared for racing at the front of the fleet," says Dutreux, who steered a 15-year-old boat to an impressive ninth place in the last Vendée Globe.
- Newcomer Simon grew up in the French département of Vendée. He won the "Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne - CMB" selection process in 2013. This success secured him a boat and the funding to compete in the Figaro Circuit. An honour he repaid in full when he won both the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro and the French Elite Offshore Racing Championship title in 2018.
These successes led him to enter his first Vendée Globe in 2020-21 with "Paprec Arkéa". After 25 days of racing, in which he sailed in the leading group, he took part in the rescue search for the injured Kevin Escoffier. Shortly afterwards, he himself had to retire from the race due to damage to his foils.
Simon is a close friend of Dutreux. They shared university accommodation in Nantes and he competed against him in the Figaro race.
Robert Stanjek is convinced that Simon's experience and technical background make him a perfect addition to the team: "Apart from his invaluable experience with the new foiling imocas, he is very good on the technical side with data analysis and also with meteorology and routing. It's great to have him with us."
Benjamin Dutreux says he couldn't be happier to have Simon on the team and emphasises how important it is to have people around you who you can rely on in a marathon event like the Ocean Race: "The human aspect is very important in a campaign like this because it's so long and you live so closely together as a team. I know how intense Sébastien's focus is and how motivated he is to be part of a complete crew taking part in the Ocean Race."
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Around the world in seven stages
In nine months and over 32,000 nautical miles, the race connects four oceans, nine countries and five continents. The route for the 2023 edition is characterised by an outstanding innovation. For the first time in the history of the race, all three southern capes will be circumnavigated in one leg. The third leg from Cape Town/South Africa to Itajai/Brazil leads through the entire Southern Ocean, past the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin/Australia and Cape Horn. There are also innovations on the rest of the route. The first leg from the start in Alicante/Spain leads to Cape Verde, where the Ocean Race has never been held before. On the penultimate leg, Kiel will once again be added to the Ocean Race map. This time as a fly-by on the route from Aarhus to The Hague. For the first time, the finish will be in the Mediterranean. As with the Ocean Race Europe, the world race will also celebrate its conclusion in Genoa/Italy.
The start of the 14th edition of this prestigious race is scheduled for 15 January 2023. The race will take place over six months around the world. The two fleets of circumnavigators are expected off Kiel in June.
