Photography made by © François Van Malleghem
JPK will entrust its 1050 "Léon" to Alex Ozon to race the Cap-Martinique 2026 solo! The competition should be very interesting with several JPK 1050s on the starting line, including Jean-François Hamon, Éric Guigné, Régis Vian, Alex Ozon, of course... and Jean-Pierre Kelbert on a client's JPK 1050. It's shaping up to be quite a match...
A word from JP
The first time I raced against Alex was in the 2016-2017 Transat.
I didn't know Alex or his boat, the Bepox 990. On the pontoons, everyone told me that his boat sailed like crazy downwind and that Alex was an alien! I got the answer on the first night: with my well-tuned 1080, I initially pulled away on a tight spinnaker tack, then as the wind shifted and picked up, I settled at 10-11 knots at the head of the fleet ahead of all the double-handed and solo crews. At the chart table, I checked the speed of the others and clicked on “Team 2 Choc”: he was gliding along at 13 knots!
I immediately realized that it would be more than difficult to keep up with Alex and his narrow, taut ULDB. Four hours later, my 5-mile lead had turned into a 5-mile deficit, and he disappeared from the AIS... With his beacon not transmitting, it wasn't until three hours before arriving in Madeira that I learned he had already arrived! In the meantime, we had had close-hauled winds at Cape Finisterre and then medium winds on the way down to Madeira, so I was hoping to finish ahead...
For the first time, the top two solo sailors were ahead of the entire double-handed fleet, which would happen systematically in future transatlantic races.
On the second leg, the wind was 25-28 knots at full VMG and the pink rocket led by our champion was sailing 2 knots faster than everyone else, with Alex pulling away indecently from the rest of the fleet. At my level, I was battling with the top five double-handed boats to break away, finally taking second place behind Alex... who finished the race with only one rudder. As a good sailor, he manages the situation three days before the finish and keeps a nice cushion ahead: respect!
Funny anecdote: four days before the finish, Alex already had a huge lead (he was beating us by 10 miles a day beyond 20 knots full VMG). So I sent him an email: “Alex, this isn't very funny, you're going too fast! If you're up for it, I suggest giving you a little handicap! Take your pick: sail without an autopilot, or sail without a spinnaker!” The next day, I heard that he had lost a rudder... I sent him another message: “But Alex, I never asked you to do that!”
On the Cap Martinique, Alex is commissioned by the Jeanneau shipyard to sail a Sun Fast 3300: I race on my own in my new JPK 1030. The boats are evenly matched and the battle is intense, especially since JF Hamon and Stéphane Bodin's “Festa” are also customers! At the finish line, Alex beat me by 1 hour and 30 minutes on corrected time after a superb battle and some clever positioning on the Atlantic. Once again, we finished ahead of the double-handed boats, which added to the pleasure!
Clearly, Alex is a real winning machine, and in my opinion, he could easily have become one of the best on the professional circuit (such as Figaro) as he has all the necessary qualities. For this Cap Martinique 2026, I thought it would be great to have him on our new JPK 1050. So he will be sailing on Léon, which he already knows (he raced and won the Course des Îles with it last June), and as for me, I will be borrowing the JPK 1050 from a client who has kindly agreed to let me use her boat for the race.
It's likely to be a close race on the water, especially as Jean-François will also be on the starting line with the same boat, ready to race hard in the spirit of fair play!
— JP Kelbert
A word from Alex
You'll be racing in the 2026 Cap Martinique on the shipyard's JPK 1050, “Léon”: what does that mean to you?
It's going to be really nice to sail on Léon, because it's a great boat with a beautiful hull. What's more, Jean-Pierre should be coming to race on another JPK 1050, as well as Jean-François Hamon... When you set sail on a boat like that, you can be pretty sure you're in the game!
That's what's going to be really nice: everyone racing on the same boat. We discussed it a couple of times with Jean-Pierre, then he offered me Léon: well, I couldn't say no!
You have a history of competing on the water against JPK and Jean-Pierre in particular...
During our very first battle, I was on my pink Bepox, which was a bit of an unknown for me, against JP on his JPK 1080. And then we clearly realized that I was more comfortable in the breeze downwind, and that's what decided it.
The second round was on the JPK 1030 for JP and me on the SF 3300. Jean-Pierre made one or two tiny mistakes that I didn't make, which allowed me to win... But we finished with a 1.5-hour difference in corrected time, which is nothing at all over a 20-day transatlantic race!
You already sailed on the boat during the 2025 Course des Îles, which you won. What did you think of it?
I was lucky enough to do the Course des Îles on Léon. It was a bit strange because we had a rating problem that forced us to downgrade the boat a little (the race only accepts competitors below a certain rating threshold). Despite this downgrade, the boat was great!
I was able to try out the entire range of sails, and I found the boat quite easy to handle because I was already familiar with the backstays and the square-headed mainsail. The cockpit is well designed, and the gangways to the front are like highways! Overall, the boat isn't very complicated... It's still a ten-meter boat, very manageable.
I just need to learn the asymmetrical spinnaker because that's a bit different for me. In any case, the Course des Îles was great fun! We did four races, we had a bit of everything: light winds, stronger winds, and I had a blast, that's for sure.
What differences do you expect between your transatlantic races and the upcoming one on Léon?
First of all, I hold the Cap Martinique record with the SF 3300, so if we can beat that record... That's the number one priority.
And then the boat goes faster, so it's going to make some hell of a runs... The aim of the game is to spend days eating up miles until you don't know what to do with them, with spray flying up the sides of the boat...
As I was saying to Éric Guigné, who just got his JPK 1050, about the spray at the bow: it's simple, it propels the water outside the boat, and when there are 30 knots, you get it all in your face! The boat is bombarding, it's great, that's what we're going for.
I'm getting to know JP well enough to know that he's one of the biggest customers for this; there's Jean-François Hamon; the duo of Éric and Maxime, who are also “pullers”; and Régis Vian with his daughter, knowing that he trains a lot and knows the boat better than we do, even though he's in a double.
I mention doubles because in singles we obviously compete against them too, it's just a rule in fact; a boat is a boat! It's definitely going to be a lot of fun, that's for sure.
Learn more about the JPK 1050
JPK 1050
The JPK 1050 is a racing machine designed for the IRC. Compact scow hull, maximum power downwind, optimised rating for solo and double-handed sailing. A pure racer designed to dominate from every angle.
