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Régates Royales in Cannes 2010
20.-25.September 2010
www.regatesroyales.com - Regatta Europa 2010
Tagesberichte siehe Menu unten
Thursday September 23rd, 2010
A beautiful autumn, sunny, spring day
…
As soon as the wind started to blow on the Bay of Cannes, sweeping away the
reindexs of the morning haze, the 120 plus yachts competing in the Régates
Royales – Trophée Panerai started to cheer up. The multi-coloured Dragons
spinnakers and the Classic Yachts majestic rigs creating a nearly perfect
picture. A racing day to carve in stone and to keep for the future to
remember...
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WEB-23Classic Yachts have been sailing all the summer, their hulls gliding
gently in the water, their masts singing in the wind, their ropes whining on
winches…
But on this first autumn day, the sun was still shining for the
seventy-three Classic Yachts sailing off the Lerins islands, from La Napoule
to La Fourmigue, in a steady southerly wind of around 8 knots. The wind
later veered to the west as a forewarn to the upcoming low pressure that
should hit Cannes tomorrow night. From the shores of Saint Honorat and
Sainte-Marguerite to the beaches of Cannes, people profited from the
beautiful day so very similar to spring, to watch the show of Mariquita’s
crew taking down her huge balloon jib to round the mark in a perfect slow
motion movie. No less magnificent was the performance from the two 15M Tuiga
and Mariska, with their hundreds square metres of sailcloth, duelling to get
around the mark first. For the smaller boats, sailing upwind to the so
called Monks’ Mark - la balise des Moines- proved to be much harder, as they
were struggling in stiffer breeze and choppier seas.
Today’s 15 miles long coastal race strengthened the provisional leaders’
position. Among the Big Boat, Moonbeam of Fife skippered by Erwan Noblet
scored another first, leading on the 15 Metre Tuiga helmed by Bernard
D’Alessandri and representing Yacht Club de Monaco. Jamet Huddleston’s
Speedbird, was particularly fast today, got an impressive victory in the
Spirits of Tradition class on powerful Nicolas Ryan’s Shamrock. In the
Classic gaffer division Kelpie’s win was not enough to contrast Francis van
de Velde’s Oriole general leadership.
Among the Marconi, the coastal race saw the comeback of Anne Sophie Hanns
Georg Klein, who crossed the line in front of Marilinda Nottis’ Cholita and
Brad Swain’s Leonore. For the smaller Marconis, Rowdy skippered by Graham
Walker took the provisonal lead, followed by Michael Sparks’ White Wings and
Blaise Bernos’ Oiseau de Feu. Finally, Spanish crew on Ramon Roses Batllo’s
Guia third place now place them behind Florence Urrutti’s Sagittarius and
Maria Giovanna II owned by Jean-Pierre Sauvan in the Classic Marconi Class,
while Italian Navy’s Chaplin led by Bruno Puzone and Fabrice Payen’s White
Dolphin switched places.
The battle will surely be fierce tomorrow…
Collision
A very unfortunate collision took place on the Classic Yacht racecourse:
while rounding the last mark before the finish, gaff ketch Thendara’s
bowsprit crushed into Moonbeam’s boom, causing extensive damage to the
indexsail and a big scratch to the wooden boom itself but, luckily enough,
not hurting anyone on board. Hopefully both boats will be able to be on the
starting line tomorrow.
The Dragon army
For the sixty one-design boats, the third racing day was another important
step to the final scoreboard – since the first discard gets into account
after five races. The sixty Dragons had two races today, the first one
sailed in shifting, unstable air and the second in a much more set
south-westerly of about ten knots. For Russian skipper Anatoly Loginov on
Annapurna, the future seems pretty bright, his worst ranking being a
fifteenth.
Longinov can count on a good ten points advantage on second placed Ivan
Bradbury’s British crew on Blue Haze, who in turn has only a thin lead on
his world-famous countryman Lawrie Smith on Alfie, whose very consistent
performances place him in third at 34 points. Austrian Carlo Loo on Happy
Island and Swiss Ulli Libor on Sui Generis, follow closely at 38 ad 39
points respectively. First French skipper is Christian Boillot on Tamm Ha
Tamm in seventh. Yet, the second and third step of the podium are still
there to grab, especially tomorrow when the weather conditions could play an
important role, with high winds and rain.
For full results you can visit the regatta’s website at
www.regatesroyales.com
Photos libres de droits sur demande
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