Jean Le Cam wins IMOCA Championship

Barcelona, Spain (April 22, 2015) – The Barcelona World Race, concluding the 2-year IMOCA Ocean Masters World Championship season, sees Jean Le Cam crowned as victor, having won the double-handed round the world with Bernard Stamm, and the Transat Jacques Vabre with Vincent Riou. With his Championship win in 2006, this is the second time that Jean Le Cam is World Champion.

From now on, the IMOCA Ocean Masters World Championship will be awarded every two years, at the end of each of the two pinnacle round the world races that punctuate it: the Barcelona World Race, and the Vendée Globe. As such, this current title rewards all the Championship races since the last Vendée Globe, namely the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2013, the New York to Barcelona Race, the Route du Rhum and the Barcelona World Race in 2014.

Thanks to his two victories in the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Barcelona World Race, Jean Le Cam adds a new line to his list of triumphs, while Bernard Stamm and Guillermo Altadill complete the podium. Thanks to their solid performances in the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Route du Rhum, Jérémie Beyou and Marc Guillemot secure fourth and fifth place respectively.

In total some 21 competitors representing 8 nationalities are ranked, reflecting the increasingly international character of the IMOCA Class. Indeed, an ever more substantial contingent of Spanish sailors has emerged through the Barcelona World Race, and there is an ever increasing interest for the IMOCA Class in countries like Poland and Germany which are new to solo offshore racing.

This World Championship crowns a very international trio with Jean Le Cam, Bernard Stamm and Guillermo Altadill. But its champion is a sailor who has never hidden his deep-seated conviction that it is through the inner shrine of French racing that the IMOCA class will draw legitimacy. Given Jean Le Cam’s affection for the Barcelona World Race and the Spanish sailors’ ambition to carve out a place for themselves in the circuit, there could be no better champion to represent the Class.

Photo: Thierry Martinez

Report by Event Media