With only three JPKs competing in the 2025 Sydney Hobart, the odds of winning the overall race, let alone achieving a double victory, were completely improbable! And yet: Alexis Loison and Jiang Lin on the JPK 1030 "Min River" won the 2025 Sydney Hobart ahead of Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal on the JPK 1080 "BNC LEON"!
Admittedly, conditions this year were conducive to low ratings with a downwind finish, but by occupying the top spots in the IRC double and their respective classes (IRC 5 and IRC 6) throughout the competition, Léon and Min River built this historic double victory mile by mile.
The stories of these two crews are closely intertwined.
In 2015, Michel Quintin, a friend from my years of Olympic windsurfing training (he was a substitute at the Seoul Olympics), came to buy Léon when I arrived in Le Marin after the 2014 Transquadra. With his father, then aged 80, he sailed the boat back to Nouméa via the Panama Canal and the Pacific. On the other side of the world, for the 2015 season, we have just entrusted a new Léon 1080 to Gery Trenteseaux, who won the Fastnet overall and in the crew category. In the same vein, Géry wants to race the Sydney Hobart, so I contacted my friend Michel to ask him if his Léon (and he on board) would be tempted. What followed was Michel's meeting with Alexis Loison, who would sail the boat from Nouméa to Sydney, then a fantastic collective adventure with a class victory and second place overall.
A few years later, Jiang Lin, an Australian of Chinese origin, ordered her JPK 1030, sailed in France and then brought her boat back to Sydney. Still sailing double-handed, Jiang finished 4th and 2nd in the last two Sydney Hobart races in her class... and wants to stack the odds in her favour for 2025, because she loves to win! And in 2025, to win, you need to have Alexis Loison on board... At the end of December, Alex and Jiang set sail with the ambition of winning the IRC double-handed, and more if the stars align!
Opposite them, Michel and Yann have been quietly preparing for several years (Alexis sometimes goes on a trip around New Caledonia with them) and are both excellent sailors with a winner's mentality. They sailed their boat from Nouméa and embarked on a major adventure.
What followed was a race for the history books, with a very windy start upwind and a downwind leg that was slow to materialise. Led from start to finish by Léon, who made an absolutely perfect start to the race, the outcome was decided at the very end after a spectacular comeback by Min River in the second half of the race and a fatal error by Michel and Yann in the last two miles, which cost them the victory.
The overall double was achieved, and the three JPKs entered won their class, as Baccanal, the Australian JPK 1180, also won in IRC 4! For the shipyard, the Sydney Hobart was the only overall race missing from its list of achievements...
For Jacques Valer, this is yet another masterful demonstration of his talent: how did he manage to design all these winning boats? JPK 1010, 1080, 1180, 1050, 1030: they have now all won overall in one of the three premier events: the Fastnet, the Middle Sea Race and the Sydney Hobart.
Congratulations to Alexis for this incredible season, in which he didn't miss a single major race, and to Jiang, who has entered the history books as the first woman to win the Sydney Hobart.
Congratulations to Michel and Yann for this crazy race and for your fair play.
