Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race
French sailing is big in the sailing world and the Volvo is big in the sailing world but both haven’t met very much for the past few years, so it’s a good thing for everybody ...
Thursday 04 March 2010, 20:00 GMT
Sidney Gavignet, a veteran of four Whitbread/Volvos, is delighted that France has been restored to the route following the announcement yesterday of Lorient as the penultimate stopover for the 2011-12 event.
In an interview with Gybe Talkin', the Volvo sailing podcast, the Frenchman said: "It's a very good thing for France. Knut Frostad has been working on bringing the French into the Volvo Ocean Race.
"French sailing is big in the sailing world and the Volvo is big in the sailing world but both haven't met very much for the past few years, so it's a very good thing for everybody."
It is the first French port to be included since La Rochelle was on the race map in 2001-02. Lorient will also host a stopover in 2014-15.
Gavignet's first Whitbread was as part of Eric Tabarly's crew on the La Poste maxi-ketch in 1993-94. In 2001-02 he was with Assa Abloy and a member of the winning ABN AMRO ONE entry in the following race. In the 2008-09 edition, Gavignet was watch captain on PUMA.
Gavignet, 41, is in Cape Town where he will join the crew of Oman Sail's trimaran Majan for the final three stages of the Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race. Gavignet has also been named as skipper of Majan for the next edition of the Route du Rhum, starting from Saint-Malo in France in November.
Given that there is a French entry, Groupama, and a French port, Gavignet may well be tempted by another lap around the world once his commitments to the Route De Rhum have finished.
"The Route De Rhum is what I am going to work on," he said. "My philosophy is to work on what I am doing in the present and the future is another matter."