Solo Sailor

Lionel Lemonchois is the classic Frenchman, charming and softly spoken. He falls in love with all the women in his life, which fortunately for this happily married man are his yachts.
Text By Suzy Rayment Portrait and Photos By Guy Nowell

The winner of the 2006 Route du Rhum, Lionel Lemonchois has a sailing pedigree second to none. Voted as Sailor of the Year in 2006 by the French Sailing Federation, this quiet and modest man happily admits that he prefers to sail solo. But in his current role as skipper of Gitana 13, he has a crew as well as a boat to manage. In his usual understated manner he is embracing the challenges and fi nding that he is enjoying the experience of sailing with a crew, and sailing in Asia. The record route began in January with the Route de l’Or and drew to a close with the maxi-catamaran’s return to Europe and the city of London, at the end of the Tea Route. As a lad, Lemonchois learned how to dive before he could swim. In later years, he worked as a diver in the Caribbean in search of rare and precious shells, after which this quiet and laid-back native of Normandy opted for a career on the water’s surface. Sailing on his father’s boat he made his fi rst Atlantic crossing at the age of 18, and then went on to spend a season sailing on board a Formula 40 in Polynesia. He started out on maxi-yachts alongside Yves Pajot, Pierre English and Halvard Mabire, before moving on to multihulls with François Boucher. But the urge to compete in his own right was too strong and, in 1989, he had a go at the Mini Transat on a boat he built himself and launched only 15 days before the start. To this day, he says the race is one of his fi nest sailing memories. “I have taken part in that event four times and still hope that I will have a chance to do it again one day”. The same goes for the Solitaire du Figaro, a circuit to which he has remained loyal, along with the Transat AG2R.

Lemonchois believes that it was his childhood experience of helping his father repair boats that has given him his profound affi nity with his yachts. “I was the junior crewmember, jack-of-all trades and cabin boy, all rolled into one. My duties included sailing and handling the boat as well as sanding, painting and other maintenance jobs. The connection that this unique sailor has with his yachts is almost palpable. “I fall in love with every boat that I sail,” he says. “Like women, they all have different temperaments and they need approaching in different ways.” When asked about Gitana 11, the trimaran in which he won the 2006 Route du Rhum, he described her “as a great beauty, but with a fi ery temper. I talked to her all the time during that race and I believe we made a great couple.” But yachts are not the only connection with the fairer sex, and Lemonchois raced with Isabelle Autissier on the Route de L’Or in 1994, Catherine Chabaud when they won the 1999 Fastnet Race and Karine Fauconnier, with whom he won the Transat AG2R in 2000.

However, it was the multihull circuit that eventually captured his imagination. He joined the Gitana Team in 2001, before leaving to contest two seasons on the ORMA circuit, including the Transat Jacques Vabre with Pascal Bidégorry, the London-Nice race with Franck Cammas, The Race on board Team Adventure with Cam Lewis, and the Jules Verne Trophy in 2005 with Bruno Peyron on Orange II.

In July 2006, Lemonchois rejoined the Gitana Team when Baron Benjamin de Rothschild asked him to take up the helm of Gitana 11 for the Route du Rhum. Quietly confident, he lined up at the start and, 7 days 17 hours 19 minutes and 6 seconds later, on 6 November 2006, crossed the finish line in Guadeloupe, shattering the old record held by Laurent Bourgnon since 1998 by more than four days. It was a fantastic achievement for all concerned, the skipper, the yacht, the Gitana Team and the Rothschild Group.

Since then, this sensational skipper has committed himself to the Gitana Team full time by taking charge of Gitana 13, the team’s maxi-catamaran. Like many of the other yachts in his life, Lemonchois has been intensely involved in all aspects of this lady’s life. Gitana 13 was acquired by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild in May 2006 and the yacht found herself back in the Multiplast shipyard in Brittany where she had been built in 2000. Various changes were made to modernise her; she underwent a radical surgery to the underwater profi le of her hulls, the mast was increased in height to 41m, and she was equipped with a new halyard blocking system (which had previously been the preserve of only the smallest multihulls). Gitana 13 acquired a new livery and the distinctive Rothschilds five arrow badge, and was relaunched in January 2007.

The new careers of both Gitana 13 and her skipper began in January this year with the Route de l’Or (New York to San Francisco) where they set a record of 43 days, 3 minutes, and 18 seconds. Their programme closed with the 'Tea Route' challenge (Hong Kong to London) and Lionel Lemonchois and his nine crew became the new record holders with a time of 41 days 21 hours 26 minutes 34 seconds. Having left Hong Kong on August 14, 2008, the sailors of Gitana Team covered the 15,312 miles at an average speed of 15.23 knots. While in Asia, the Gitana Team took over as outright record-holders from Taipei to Hong Kong, and also set new reference times between Yokohama, Dalian, Qingdao and Taipei in May 2008.

Lemonchois believes it is a great honour to be involved with the Rothschild’s Group and speaks highly of Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. “There are few owners these days who bring such class and passion to sailing and I am proud to belong the the Gitana Team, says Lemonchois. The whole Rothschild family was been bitten by the incurable ocean racing virus,” he jokes, but in fact he has probably also been bitten by the same virus and as there is no cure, he is destined for the life at sea.