France now also represented in the 2014 SSL Finals in the Bahamas: Xavier Rohart, #4 in SSL Ranking

One of the founders of the Star Sailors League, Rohart will also be the standard-bearer for France at next December’s historic regatta in the Bahamas. The second edition of the SSL Finals will be even richer and more varied than last year’s on every level: there will be more champions plus better technology and communications at what promises to be a spectacular event thanks to the normally very reliable weather and the large group of topflight sailors taking part.

Even in this record fleet, however, Rohart has one of the best CVs. Early in his career, the Frenchman sailed both the Finn and the Laser, but eventually settled on the Finn, first qualifying for the Olympic team in 1992. At the 2000 Games, he just missed out on a medal, finishing fifth. In 2001, Rohart began sailing Star class boats for fun, while continuing to train in the Finn. But a 12th place finish at the 2001 Worlds prompted him to switch to the Star for the Athens Games. At the 2003 Worlds, Rohart and his crew, Pascal Rambeau, won gold, and went on to win bronze in the Athens Olympics. Since the 2004 Games, in fact, he hasn’t finished out of the top ten at a Star Worlds. In 2005, he won gold and, a year later, took bronze. In 2008, he finished ninth, but won the Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta. Xavier Rohart competed in his fourth Olympic Games in 2008, skippering the Star class, and his fifth in London 2012. In 2013, he came in fourth at the Star Worlds in San Diego. His crew Pierre-Alexis Ponsot now also works with him at the French Ecole Nationale de Voile.

Star-wise, so far in 2014, Rohart has finished fourth the Bacardi Cup in Miami, won the French Championship and competed in the Worlds at Malcesine in which he failed to finish in the top 10 because of an error in the last start.

Quotes from Xavier Rohart: “I’m impatient to sail in those warm waters again so I can push myself and my team against some of the best sailors in the world. Preparation time is a bit short but I have my best gear with me and I will try to use some of the knowledge we built up last year… I’m keeping in mind that we won the first race of the final day too! I’m also impatient to see how the SSL is growing and achieving some of the goals we dry after the London OG. It will be a good time to share with other sailors also!”

Quotes from Pierre-Alexis Ponsot: “Our goal is to do a better job than last year. We hope to be able to reach a Top 3 position at the end of the event. Being on the podium would be incredible! We can’t wait to go out with the boat and see what we can achieve. Being in such a large fleet is very exciting and I’m really looking forward to it”. About the race format: “That’s a very interesting and exciting format for sure. The pressure keeps mounting and you can feel the drama building up as you move on with the races”.