Veolia Environnement skipper, Roland Jourdain, who confirmed his participation in the double-handed Barcelona World Race just under three weeks ago in Paris, has now named his co-skipper for this new race as 44-year-old Frenchman Jean Luc Nelias. Nelias, an experienced monohull and multihull sailor who won the 2005 Calais Round Britain Race with Jourdain, will now face his very first circumnavigation of the globe in the new two-up, non-stop round the world race that starts on 11th November 2007 from the city of Barcelona. Jean Luc Nélias is the fourteenth skipper to be named and he will be the only skipper on the entry list so far not to have competed in a round the world race.
Jourdain, winner of the IMOCA 60 class in the 2006 solo Route du Rhum, selected Nélias as his partner for his race for his weather and navigation skills. Nélias, born in Quimper, France, was skipper of the ORMA 60 mulithull Belgacom from 2000-2004 and finished third overall in the 2001 ORMA Championship. In 2003 Belgacom was the second ORMA to cross the finish line of the double-handed transatlantic Transat Jacques Vabre race with Loick Peyron. In 2004 Nélias turned his attention back to Figaro sailing and finished 7th overall in the main event of the Figaro season, the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro, as well as earning him the accolade of leading ‘Rookie’. Two years later, he raced with Jourdain in the 2006 Transat AG2R and the finished 4th overall. The format of the double-handed race will enable both sailors to push Veolia Environment – the same IMOCA 60 Jourdain raced in the 2004 Vendée Globe - to the maximum potential. These two skippers will race Veolia Environnement together for the first time in the prologue event for the Barcelona World Race, the Rolex Fastnet starting on 12th August.
