Oceanracing 2004 - Transat Québec-Saint Malo

Transat Québec-Saint Malo - 6th edition
Start 11.07.2004 - www.quebecsaintmalo.com - zur Übersicht

Monday 19 July 2004
NEWSFLASH
Sergio Tacchini Takes Victory in the 6th Transat Québec Saint Malo

It was at 13 hours 50 minutes and 54 seconds (GMT) this Monday 19 July 2004 that the 60 foot trimaran Sergio Tacchini crossed the finish line of the 6th Transat Québec Saint Malo under warm cloudy blue skies greeted by some sixty or so spectator boats. In so doing Karine Fauconnier, Jean Baptiste Levaillant, Damian Foxall, Brian Thompson, Antoine Mermod and Ronan Le Goff engrave their names in the record books of the Transat Québec Saint Malo, approximately 36 minutes outside the record time for the event held by Loïck Peyron of 07 days 20 hours and 24 minutes. Their race time for covering the 2950 miles is 7 days 21 hours 0 minutes and 54 seconds at an average theoretical speed over the course of 15.36 knots(km/h).

This victory is a great first on numerous levels. It's Karine Fauconnier's first victory in a crewed transat on this boat, and it's the first time a female skipper has won this race. For one of her crew, Jean Baptiste Levaillant, this was his sixth race and his third win in the Québec Saint Malo, almost beating his own reference time!

An exemplary race - Karine Fauconnier and her men have had an exemplary race. Leaving Quebec on 11 July at 1650 GMT, they passed all the course marks in pole position and took on all the large course phases in the lead: the entrance into the Golf of Saint Laurent, entrance into the Atlantic, entrance into the Irish Sea and then the Channel. They have lead the 60' multihull fleet pretty much since the 0500 GMT ranking on 12 July and only lost their lead position on a few rare moments: Tuesday 13 July to the benefit of Groupama and Géant, then to the favour of the other Italian team, Tim Progetto Italia on 16th. Their northerly option in the last third of the Atlantic crossing proved decisive for the end of the race. Right up to the finish in Saint Malo, they continued to be threatened by a group of four very high performance trimarans, comprising Groupama, Géant, Sodebo and Tim Progetto Italia but all there hard work at the nav station and on the helm has come good. At the time of the finish Géant was just 16.6 miles behind, Groupama, 16.8, Sodebo 20.5 and Tim Progetto Italia 32.2 miles from the leader. The battle for second place is on...whilst at the back of the fleet Yves Parlier's Médiatis -Région Aquitaine has recorded the best distance in 24 hours of 526.6 miles, now just 416 miles behind Karine Fauconnier.

Quote Karine Fauconnier:
"It has really been a great race - in fact I have to say that I have never enjoyed a race so much. It's a really fantastic team and it was a fantastic effort. The crew really compliment each other. Brian Thompson. When | finished the Transat I thought I'd lost the passion for sailing. It was really hard and the conditions were intense. I was really pretty hard to live with in Quebec as a result. I really wanted to win, we left Quebec with no desire other than to make it first into Saint Malo. Now I feel that this Transat has given me the desire to sail again and I couldn't be more pleased."

Portrait of Karine Fauconnier
Karine had a rather animated childhood, brought up on the deck of a three-masted vessel called Vendredi 13, skippered by her parents in the turquoise waters of the West Indies. Trained in the school of the sea and the richness of her encounters on it - mixing with all the great names in sailing from her father Yvon's generation - Karine naturally acquired her seafaring skills. At 24, after a few detours in the world of culture and showbiz, Karine returned to her first love: the sea and boats. She opted for regatta sailing initially and single-handed sailing with the Figaro. It was a steep learning curve but her progress was constant. In 2000 she won the Transat AG2R with Lionel Lemonchois then it was a big leap forward to the multihull. At the helm of Sergio Tacchini now for three years, the sailor has had a progressive and highly intelligent approach to handling her project. Since her victory in the Grand Prix of Italy in 2003, Karine has amassed a number of podium finishes and become one of the skippers to beat on the multihull circuit. Evidence of this lies in her fifth place in her very first single-handed transatlantic, The Transat.

The crew
Karine Fauconnier, Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, Damian Foxall, Brian Thompson, Ronan Le Goff, Antoine Mermod With Jean Baptiste Le Vaillant and Antoine Mermod, Karine Fauconnier has surrounded herself by part of her usual crew, including Damian Foxall with whom she contended the last Transat Jacques Vabre. To this recipe she has added two great ocean racing specialists made up of Ronan Le Goff, former holder of the Trophée Jules Vernes aboard Orange and above all the Brit, Brian Thompson, Steve Fosset's navigator who has just pulverised the round the world reference time aboard Cheyenne.
Author: Kate Jennings
PRESS SERVICE TEAM :
Press Attaché: Laurence Dacoury Tel: +33(0)1 47 72 81 41 - +33(0)6 18 41 30 28 Email: ldacoury@wanadoo.fr head of the Press Department in the town of Saint-Malo: Françoise Hilaire Tel: +33(0)2 99 20 86 07 francoise.hilaire@ville-saint-malo.fr Press release writer + internet site: Camille Elbeze Tel: +33 (0)6 60 62 60 71 Email: camille.elbeze@wanadoo.fr Radio Chat Session host + writer, press releases and internet site: Pierrick Garenne Tel: +33 (0)6 16 99 03 33 Email: pgarenne@club-internet.fr Press release writer + internet site + international press relations: Kate Jennings Tel: +33 (0)6 16 43 80 08 Email: katejennings@free.fr Our correspondant in Quebec: Dominic Bourgeois
In charge of the internet site, media conferences and press relations with the radio: the team from Windreport : Corentin Duroselle by email cod@windreport.com +33(0)2 40 84 27 28. quebecsaintmalo@windreport.com Aurélie Uchard +33 (0)1 55 37 03 76 au@windreport.com Carine Prost . +33 (0)6 86 00 97 91 cp@windreport.com Yannick Perrigot 33 (0)2 40 84 30 00 yp@windreport.com
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Logistics contact for the Race HQ / Press HQ : Philippe Granier (Royale Production) : Tel : +33 6 22 15 00 10, e-mail : pgranier@royale.fr.