After sustaining an injury during a training session on board the trimaran Arkema Multi50, Karine Fauconnier is not able to take part in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2017 race. Hence Alex Pella will take her place as co-skipper alongside Lalou Roucayrol.
Changing a co-skipper less than three months before the start of a transatlantic race is not a comfortable situation to be in. After Karine Fauconnier suffered an injury, Team Arkema Lalou Multi bounced back and found a replacement to match her.
Spanish skipper Alex Pella was chosen eventually. The new twosome have 80 days to get to know each other, train and deliver!
After Karine got injured, we had to come up with an alternative solution. We selected various profiles, the aim being to stay focused on excellence. Alex Pella’s name soon came up.”
However, Karine Fauconnier remains involved in the race. Working as a team with Eric Mas (a professional meteorologist), she will be looking after the routing and the weather strategy from land for this Transat Jacques Vabre 2017. The Lalou Roucayrol /Alex Pella pair will therefore benefit from her technical knowledge of the Arkema Multi50 trimaran as well as her unrivalled sailing skills.
Giving up on the Jacques Vabre race is a decision with heavy consequences. My goal is for our team to win, with or without me on board. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll do my utmost to help the new twosome to perform by guiding them to keep on course and giving them advice from land. It’s a fine way to continue the story...
Who is Alex Pella, the new co-skipper on board the Multi50 Arkema?
Born in Barcelona in 1972, Alex Pella has been a professional sailor for over 15 years. His superb track record is testimony to his talent in ocean racing: a joint holder of the Trophée Jules Verne with the IDEC crew (round-the-world sailing world record), he has also won the most legendary of solo transatlantic races, the Route du Rhum, in Class40.
The challenge is to catch up as quickly as possible to help Lalou Roucayrol run an excellent Transat Jacques Vabre race, if not win it. I’m certain we can achieve this. It’s a big challenge for me personally and from a sporting viewpoint. The competition is going to be tough and this is spurring me on even more. I’m going to give it my all!