A Brighter Shade of Orange

There's a newcomer on the Orange II crewlist : the guy's name is Bernard Stamm, and as you may know he used to own the Atlantic record (crewed, 2001) on his Armor Lux "home made" monohull. Home made because he built the beast (Pierre Rolland-designed) in the small town of Lesconil in Brittany, with the help of all the community of fishermen. The city lent him a shed, and people from around used to come in and give a hand when they could. A great story (women in the village used to cook for whoever was working on the boat), and the Open 60 won brilliantly the last edition of Around Alone.

But what a bummer, Bernard lost his keel in The Transat - a quite common disease these days, or so it seems - and couldn't repair in time to be on the Vendée starting line. But the guy's a great sailor, with a "pedal-to-the-floor" approach a amazing seamanship, so it was logical he'd find a job with a top team.

So he now wears the Orange-labelled foul weather gear, and just cannot wait to see the dial hit the 40 knots barrier. Fear the Swiss mercenary.

-Jocelyn Blériot - Course Au Large

Photo Gilles Martin-Raget

1/12/05