Jean Pierre Kelbert (Mr JPK) and Alexis Louison, won the famous Spi Ouest regatta 2025 today, Monday 21 April 2025. The fantastic new racer of the shipyard, the JPK10.50, made its debut appearence in this important race, and won the double handed category. We were very lucky to get a feeling of the race as we are in Lorient picking up our new JPK39. It is very interesting to see that the competitors know eachother well. For example, the second boat, the PogoRC, was raced by Tanguy Bouroullec, the owner of the Pogo Structures and very experienced young sailor, and Fred Duthil, the amazing sailmaker of Incidence, that we are fortunate enough to have chosen as our sailmaker.
It is worthwhile noticing that Fred and Jean Pierre are good friends, and Fred has made the sails for Leon, the JPK 10.50 that bares the same name as Jean Pierre’s previous racer. I was fortunate enough to participate in one of the first testsails of the JPK10.50, with both sailors on board, commenting, adjusting the trimming of the rudders on the go, and trying to push the boat from the first tries already. The caption photo is from that day. I remember 18 knots TWS, and 13 knots boats speed, with Gennaker, genoa and main. Quite impressive for such a boat lenght!
The amazing new little devil of the shipyard was first for the first three races, and second on the last one, in a tight competition with Pogos’s impresive attempt to enter the IRC races. It is the first attempt of Pogo structures on this terrain, and already managed to climb on the second place, sandwiched by the new JPK10.50 in the first, and the old JPK10.10 in the third place.
This is the first of several races that the boats have to participate, in order to qualify for the Rolex Fastnet Race in the summer. This is the ultimate goal for Jean Pierre Kelbert and Alexis Loison for this year. We wish them the best of luck, and hope to participate ourselves at some point.
