Smart - and fast enough

Patrice Carpentier sits down with a thoughtful PASCAL BIDEGORRY, winner of the 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre in the Orma 60 Class,

Pascal Bidégorry and his good friend Lionel Lemonchois won the recent Transat Jacques Vabre onboard their much-travelled 2002 Nigel Irens trimaran Banque Populaire - ahead of only three other finishers in the Orma 60 Class.

Bidégorry, 37, from the Basque country in southwest France, won the Solitaire du Figaro in 2000 and then learnt his multihull skills at the side of Franck Cammas. Onboard Groupama he won the Orma championship twice with Cammas before becoming skipper of Banque Populaire last year. After 16 years of sponsorship, this financial group finally got their first taste of a major victory when Bidégorry won the IB Groupe Challenge between Lorient and Nice at the start of 2005. He then established himself as the most consistent skipper in the inshore Grand Prix behind his former skipper, Franck Cammas, and his all-conquering Groupama 2.

To read the remainder of this and many other articles, please purchase your copy of the February 2006 edition of Seahorse International Sailing available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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