17.05.2010
Morning press release
On a beat off Plymouth
The fleet in the Normandy Channel Race extracted itself from Start Bay on
the SW coast of England last night. Thomas Ruyant-Tanguy Leglatin continue
to lead on "Destination Dunkerque" and they have made the most of the wind
rotating round to the NW to head offshore and make towards Cape Lizard
towards the extreme SW tip of Cornwall on a single tack. Franssens-Kleinjans
(Moonpalace) perfectly mirrored this repositioning as they slid downwind of
the Dunkirk boat into second position in the provisional general ranking.
Meantime Peter Harding and Halvard Mabire (40 Degrees) hugged the coast for
a long time, with Yvan Noblet and David Tabouré (AppartCity) right on their
tail. This morning though the two boats have split away, Harding/Mabire
continuing to opt for the coast while Noblet/Tabouré have headed offshore.
The cold, rather windless night across the whole of the race zone has
nevertheless enabled the whole of the chasing pack to get a morale boost
after the tricky Solent section, as Caen skipper testifies, now settled well
into his race: "Halyard problems slowed us down and we were sailing under
indexsail alone for 3 hours, added to which we were being forced to sail
beneath the desired course! The upshot of that is that we were a long way
behind in the Solent, sailing close-hauled with the current against us. In
fact we traversed the entire Solent against the current with the wind right
on the nose as it came down the channel towards us! Things have improved now
and that can only be a good thing...". The sailor-journalist Pierre-Yves
Lautrou, companion to Christophe Coatnan aboard "Groupe Partouche" will
remember his passage across the Solent for a long while: "...this legendary
yachting site pulled out all the stops for us: sun, flat seas, between 1 and
4 knots of breeze and an abundance of current smack in the face, whilst the
frontrunners slipped through effortlessly."
The 9 crews still in the running after last night’s retirement due to engine
and power problems by "Groupe Picoty", skippered by Jacques Fournier and
Denis van Weynbergh, will now be concentrating on beginning their third day
of racing with an escape from the English Channel in perspective. Light airs
are on the menu in the cold and the mist, which is complicating things as
regards indextaining a look-out for cargo ships and fishing boats. For the
time being the double-handed crews are having to choose between a course
nudging Lizard Point, or the hope of finding a little more pressure
offshore. For now the deficits between the fleet are minimal, with 4 boats
positioned within less than 11 miles, and 9 boats within less than 31 miles.
Not located by the satellites this morning, Phesheya Racing skippered by
South Africans Nick Legatt and Philippa Hutton-Squire are very much in on
the action as shown by their night message: “We were involved in a tacking
duel with Novedia in the Solent and have made the most of the current to
make good headway towards Hurts Narrows...."
Follow the Normandy Channel Race by visiting :
http://www.normandy-race.com/, an official position report will be online
each day at 5, 8, 11, 15 and 1900 hours
Rights free photos for the press and web by Jean-Marie Liot
www.jmliot.com
User name: media@ncr2010.com
Password: ncr2010
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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