Catherine Chabaud’s new Open 60 Whirlpool will be racing in the Route du Rhum, the single-handed transatlantic race from St Malo to Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe.

She is the first new Open 60 to be launched in France which has not come from the board of Groupe Finot. Instead she has been designed by Marc Lombard.

Lombard tells Yachting World that she more than complies with the IMOCA rules and he has attempted to improve the boats upwind performance over the Finot designs.