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A Jersey-born sailor who shuns fossil fuels for clean energy has come top of the class - the Class40 Championships, that is - for the second year in a row.
Phil Sharp took scooped the prize after finishing on the podium in all the races on the circuit aboard his zero-emission boat, Imerys Clean Energy.
He scored his latest podium position, a third place, last week in the transatlantic Route du Rhum after 16 days, 13 hours, 1 minute, 50 seconds at sea.
Earlier this year, Sharp won both the Normandy Channel Race and Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland race, breaking the previous event record by around 15 hours with his teammates, Pablo Santurdé, Julien Pulvé and Sam Matson. Sharp also took second place in the Drheam Cup, and third in the 1000 Milles des Sables. His podium results earned him 858 points in the Championship, with runner up Aymeric Chappellier, who beat Sharp to the second place in the Route du Rhum, raking 722 points and Luke Berry, 719.
Sharp's successes appeared to have earn him quite some esteem among his competitors, with his temperament as "a tenacious and resolute fighter" apparently earning him the nickname 'The Bulldog'.
Pictured: Other competitors call Sharp 'The Bulldog' due to his tenacity and temperament.
The sailor said the championship has been increasingly selective due to the arrival of new boats and racers this year. The final of the Route du Rhum was a reflection of how fiercely contested this season was. Around 15 sailors, each aboard latest generation mono-hulls or fully-honed 40-foot monohulls, were in for victory on 4 November.
The Route du Rhum was Sharp's primary objective for the season. After winning in 2006, he knew he’d be up against very different opposition at the helm of an older generation boat, his Mach2 No.130 Imerys Clean Energy, which was built in 2013. In the shadow of Yoann Richomme’s Lift 40, Phil Sharp became embroiled in a fight with the newer generation Mach3 Aïna Enfance et Avenir. Like a number of his rivals, he faced a good share of damage, but was able to pull off a podium place, less than two hours behind Aymeric Chappellier.
Pictured: Sharp's boat, Imerys Clean Energy, was the only one without fossil fuel during Route du Rhum. (Jean-Marie-Liot)
Following his success in 2017, this new victory comes as a great source of satisfaction for the skipper. “Winning the Championship for a second consecutive year has shown that above all we have been consistent, finishing every event over the last two years on the podium, with a previous generation boat," Sharp said Achieving this success is down to a lot of hard work on and off the water from all the team, both technically and commercially.”
For the Imerys team, the Energy Challenge has gone beyond race results and fulfilled its objective of demonstrating accessible clean-technologies to aid the transition to clean marine power. Imerys Clean Energy features a suite of high efficiency renewable energies, including low weight solar photovoltaic, a hydrogenerator and the recent addition of biodiesel. The B100 biodiesel acts as a direct renewable replacement to conventional fossil diesel and enabled Imerys Clean Energy to be the only boat in the Route du Rhum without fossil fuel aboard.
Video: Sharp demonstrated novel clean technologies to go fossil-free for the 3,550 mile Route du Rhum transatlantic race
Sharp explained: “We really hope that these practical renewable energy solutions can help set an example for the marine industry to follow in order to reduce air pollution on our oceans. Not many people realise that the shipping industry is the dirtiest of transport sectors and it is a part of our mission to accelerate development, and demonstrate vital clean-tech. This is very much part of our longer term objectives and our Class40 campaign has provided an exciting platform to build from.
“We would not have been able to achieve our performance and environmental results without the invaluable support of our dedicated partners. I hope they recognise the crucial role they have played, and can share in our successes by being proud of what they have helped the Energy Challenge achieve to date.”
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