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Normandy Channel Race 2014
Caen, 22.05.-01.06.2014
www.normandy-race.com -Übersicht
Press release No.11 – Normandy Channel Race 2014 – 30 May 2014.
Picnic at Guernsey!
General grouping together offshore of Bréhat near Guernsey… things are gearing up for a restart! GDF SUZ and GROUPEMENT FLO are neck and neck with TEAM WORK in hot pursuit. All about, the battle is on to hunt down even a sniff of breeze…
Some thirty or so miles prior to Guernsey, the general bunching together of the bulk of the fleet was an inevitability: “we were the first to hit the rather unfavourable breeze after the Lizen Ven mark to the north of Brittany. If we’d had a 10-mile lead or a 5-mile one, it would have been the same. We were expecting the fleet to concertina up!” Brieuc Maisonneuve explains on GROUPEMENT FLO. “It’s war!” says Sébastien Rogues (GDF SUEZ), before quickly returning to an umpteenth manoeuvre to counter the repeated attacks from the sailors from Lower Normandy, who have no desire to let their position at the top of the leaderboard fall into the hands of the grey and gold boat for too long. The Mini sailors, Bertrand Delesne and David Raison (TEAM WORK), are watching this bloody duel close up and could even attempt to use it to their advantage…
Add to this hellish struggle a windless zone over the Channel Islands and enough current to play havoc with the skippers’ nerves: “We caught up with the fleet at the Lizen Ven mark and we’re with Yannick Bestaven – LE CONSERVATEUR, who’s ‘in front-behind’ like us, L’EXPRESS - TREPIA and “Des Pieds et Damien” (ERDF), who aren’t far off either. I’d just like us to get out of this hole because, without any wind, it’s the tides which decide and that’s hard to live with. In any case, nothing is set in stone yet. Things can be won and lost and that’s the magic of this race,” explains Halvard Mabire (CAMPAGNE DE FRANCE – 8th). Jean-Christophe Caso on TEAM PICOTY – Lac de Vassivière goes one further. “The ground tackle is ready on deck in case. Battling against the current, with the little breeze we have, involves constant work.” On SERENIS CONSULTING, 5th, the atmosphere is swinging between despair and optimism: “we’re up to our eyes in it. 1-knot of boat speed, no wind and Bilou is on the helm, religiously focused… But things will turn around. We just need to be in the right place at the right time!” says Jean Galfione, for whom top-level competition holds no secrets (a former Olympic pole-vault champion).
This is just the start of this final, tricky stage of the Normandy Channel Race. The negotiation of the Raz Blanchard and then Barfleur, to the north of the Cotentin headland, conceal pitfalls which are all too familiar to the sailors and, as a result, none of them are keen to hazard a guess about the outright winner.
The first boat is expected offshore of Ouistreham tomorrow morning, Saturday 31 May, after a race which “is about to become the Class40 Figaro!” states Halvard Mabire.
Quotes from the boats at the radio session:
GROUPEMENT FLO – Brieuc Maisonneuve :
We’re within sight of Guernsey. The yellow peril is to windward and we have other fishy customers not far off… We’re making headway at 2.5 knots... We wove along very nicely during our descent of the English Channel towards Brittany, but in any case, we were the first to hit the rather unfavourable breeze after the Lizen Ven mark to the north of Brittany. If we’d had a 10-mile lead or a 5-mile one, it would have been the same. Picnic at Guernsey. In fact we may well commit an act of piracy, because we don’t have a lot left aboard, so it would be better if there weren’t any people strolling along the coast. We may turn nasty… I don’t think that’s allowed in the Sailing Instructions though, so we’ll go fishing instead!
We’ve known for a long while that it won’t be over till… it’s over. Rémi and I are both rugby men so believe me when I say we’re going to battle it out until the final whistle and I can tell you, Manfred, there are going to be deaths!
Rémi Aubrun (Belgian accent):
We have some problems heeere, because the food on the boaaat is revoltttting. Everyday it’s the same thiiiiiing and we have nooooothing left. So listen out you the ooorganisation, we’d liiiiike something goooood on our arriiiival!!
GDF SUEZ – Sébastien Rogues :
Yes, we’ve made a great comeback in relation to Groupement Flo. We’re going to keep it brief because it’s war out here. We’re highly focused. Bertrand sailed brilliantly last night. He didn’t give anyone an inch. We’re now trying to escape this light patch. It’s impossible to say, who’s going to win the race! A lot hinges on what’s happening at the moment so see you soon!
OBPORTUS 3 – Philippe Burger :
We’re at last beginning to understand our boat (laughs). The first few days of training are over and now we’re in race mode. And we’re very happy. La Belle Equipe 2 is tailing us nicely and keeping us on our toes. There are sure to be a few happenings before the finish. It really is a fine race and we’re having a lot of fun. It’s intriguing! It’s nothing like it was last year, where we didn’t want to look at the rankings anymore! Given the level of the competition in this edition, we’d rather be 10th this year than 5th last year.
LA BELLE EQUIPE 2 - Bruno Rzetelny :
We made a great comeback but since then, we’ve made two or three silly little mistakes, though we haven’t lost hope of catching up with Obportus 3, which is to leeward of us! We haven’t forgotten that we have a penalty to carry out too. We’re trying to tack now so as to make northing, but we don’t know if we have to traverse the counter current or if we need to punch the tide for a little more yet. We’re not overly tired, but we’ve had some technical issues, which resulted in a little climb up to the top of the mast, as well as some failed electronics. As such we’ve been busy with the charts, compass and sextant like the old days. We were happy to rediscover the joys of the GPS this morning though.
KOGANE – Richard Tolkien :
We look to finish as we started, not that well, but fun… We are very close to the other boats. It’s nice but we need to be very concentrated. The boat is doing well and the night was fine. We’re wondering when we will have some wind. The wind has dropped and we’re going very slow but it’s very nice all around us so we can't complain…! At the moment, we have 6-7 knots of wind, and we’re making 3 or 4 knots boat speed. We have a strong tide running against us though so we're maybe making 2 knots over the ground. It’s not gonna be easy until we finish. We've a long way to go… The next three hours will be challenging technically! Let’s see what happens!
SWISH – Roderick Knowles : We’re doing great. We’ve just hit a little bit of wind and sincerely hope the current will be in our favour level with Cherbourg. Physically, we’re a little tired but we’re okay. I was in the process of hoisting the Code Zero when you called. I’m dreaming of a bath and a beer! I’ll return to my Code Zero now and hope to see you tomorrow!
SERENIS CONSULTING – Jean Galfione :
We’re still battling away and we’re within reach of everyone now. We’ve twice dropped behind and then caught up again so that’s nice. We’re up to our eyes in it. 1-knot of boat speed, no wind and Bilou is on the helm, religiously focused… But things will turn around. We just need to be in the right place at the right time! We haven’t had much sleep since the start so we’re a tad tired, which has caused us to miss a manoeuvre at a given moment, but we’re on the alert now.
CAMPAGNE DE FRANCE – Halvard Mabire :
It’s totally calm here. There’s not much visibility so we can’t even make the most of the landscape. We didn’t have much luck on our side during our Channel crossing. We really had a hard time of it at the Lizen Ven Ouest mark. We’ve caught up since and we’re with Yannick Bestaven – LE CONSERVATEUR, who’s ‘in front-behind’ like us, L’EXPRESS - TREPIA and “Des Pieds et Damien” (ERDF), who aren’t far off either. I’d just like us to get out of this hole. The emphasis today will be more on playing the tides rather than our strategy, so it’s frustrating. We’re hoping that these currents will take us around the island naturally. Nothing is set in stone yet. Things can be won and lost. We’ll see the comments at the finish… the joys, the frustrations… It’s going to be interesting. Added to the fact that we haven’t always been ‘good’, we haven’t had much luck on our side either. We’ve never been able to do what Brieuc did for example, when he made off to the east after Land’s End, bound for Tuskar. The rest of us didn’t have the choice. In fact, I’d like to report that we crossed tacks with… a tree! There weren’t any leaves on it, but it was huge, just below the surface, with some big branches, so it was pretty dangerous. See you soon.
RANKING: (at 1300 GMT)
1. GDF SUEZ (Rogues/ Castelnerac)
2. GROUPEMENT FLO (Maisonneuve/ Aubrun) + 1.5 nm
3. TEAM WORK (Delesne/ Raison) + 4.5 nm
4. TEAM PICOTY - LAC DE VASSIVIERE (Caso/ Chappellier) + 6.4 nm
5. SERENIS CONSULATING (Galfione/ Jourdain) + 7.2 nm
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Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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