Formula Foil Ocean Racing Championships
A new race format named Formula Foil Ocean Racing Championships (FFORC) with a minimum of 10 teams, sailing 10 races, over 10,000nm offering a total prize fund of £80,000 for the winners has been announced for 2020.
Racing in identical Beneteau Figaro 3 yachts, FFORC has been launched by a new business created by Stuart Greenfield. The championship will run from Spring 2020 until February 2021, and then yearly, and the winner will be declared in Antigua.The championship is open to any Beneteau Figaro 3 with a minimum crew of 4 and maximum crew weight limit of 500kg. The yachts will be hand steered and be strictly one design.
The concept will begin with 10 identical yachts being made available to the first 10 teams entering on a fully managed basis. The yachts will run by the new company from a single base on the Isle of Wight and offered to teams on a fully ‘step-on and race’ basis for £75,000(+ VAT) * for the championship. This includes full use of a race prepared Beneteau Figaro 3 yacht and a set number of training and leisure days plus all maintenance and race entries. Teams may be amateur, sponsored, or fully professional. Amateur teams, if needed, will be provided with training and relevant first aid, sea survival and radio VHF courses to achieve the necessary qualifications to meet the Category 1 standard to which the races will comply. All races will count towards the results with no discards.
*price for teams signing up before 1st January 2019
The race program will provide a range of offshore races in the English Channel before venturing on longer races to Ireland, Lanzarote, and finally a transatlantic race. All crews will build up their experience in longer more challenging races over the 10-month championship, and there will also be a small inshore element to include races such as Round the Island.
The Yacht
The Figaro Beneteau 3 is the first production foiling one-design monohull ever to be designed. A distillation of technology and innovation. It results from a collaboration between Group Beneteau’s best experts and the Van Peteghem Lauriot-Prevost (VPLP) office, the architects of the two last boats to win the Vendee Globe
www.beneteau.com/en/figaro-beneteau-3
