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Press release – Wednesday 25 May 2011
Hand to hand combat
On the 3rd day of the race and already on the return leg. After a long reach
yesterday between Land’s End and Tuskar Rock, the reindexing 12 Class40s are
now powering along towards Guernsey… close-hauled! Leading the fleet, the
battle continues to rage between Port de Caen Ouistreham and Initiatives
Saveurs. Since the start the two boats have been playing at cat and mouse.
In the 0700 GMT ranking, this Wednesday morning, less than a mile separated
the crew of Fabien Delahaye and Bruno Jourdren and that of Tanguy de Lamotte
and Sébastien Audigane. Behind them, the separation is becoming more stable,
but there’s still a long way to go before they reach home…
Yesterday’s change of course is providing competitors with a little respite.
The current conditions are more manageable and the downwind descent the
previous day has enabled the skippers to get some rest. Ahead of them is a
beat as far as Land’s End and finally, once they’re around this headland,
they’re likely to benefit from downwind conditions which will carry them to
the finish.
Message from Tanguy de Lamotte and Sébastien Audigane aboard Initiatives
Saveurs, received on Tuesday 24 May at 2255 hours French time:
“Hello, hello! A superb day for Initiatives Saveurs. We’ve were belting
along on a reach until we came back to within a hundred metres of Port de
Caen Ouistreham. On rounding the lighthouse, the two crews anticipated their
manoeuvres well, furling and dumping of the genoa in the locker, putting in
a reef in the indexsail, or the Solent for Port de Caen Ouistreham, stacking
to starboard and tacking around Tuskar Rock lighthouse, taking care not to
run aground on the shelf around it! This site is still just as magical and
fabulous. We’d have really liked to have stopped off along the coast to
drink a Guinness but we have a race to the finish and no time to hang about
as a front’s on its way, which is why we’re heading straight for Caen. It’s
going to be a fairly calm night on a single tack until tomorrow morning
before we get onto a beat… So that’s where I’ll have to leave you as I have
to check the weather forecasts and prepare a good meal! Have a good evening!
Aboard Initiatives Saveurs, Séb and Tanguy”.
Message from Phillippa Hutton Squire and Nick Leggatt aboard Phesheya
Racing, received on Tuesday 24 May at 2322 hours French time:
“Good evening everyone! This morning we were off the Lizard. The sun rose,
lighting up the Channel and put a smile on our faces. We were sailing
between Longships lighthouse and Land’s End when we saw a Class40. It was
number 107. We filmed them and called them up on the VHF. We spoke to Marc
Lepesqueux (Marie Toit – Caen la Mer), who told us he and Michel Kleinjans
were returning to Caen. They seemed very disappointed. For our part, we
dumped the Solent and switched to the staysail. We were delighted to sail on
a good reach as far as Tuskar Rock. Later on we hoisted our gennaker with
dolphins right around the boat. I think we’ll have some great photos to show
you. The Class40 is really an incredible boat. At sunset we dined and drank
a cup of tea. Today was the first birthday of our mascot Pippa Potamus.
She’s been very lucky to sail downwind throughout the day…”
Message from Caroline Vieille and Stéphanie Alran aboard Ocean’s Eleven,
received on Wednesday 25 May at 0200 hours French time:
“It’s 0130 hours and the day has begun with a slight annoyance: calm
weather! Since last night we’ve been trying to get past the English coast
but the wind abandoned us off the end of Cornwall. Our thoughts are with the
frontrunners who must have passed Tuskar Rock, bravo to them and to Ivan
Vautier’s sweets which are boosting our spirits. It’s best to be
philosophical about things, though it’s a bitter pill to swallow. We were
expecting a tough match but the sense of being out of the action is hard to
take; it’s not in our nature. As such we’re making massives of lists of
things to be improved on with a view to the upcoming events in our sailing
season. In the meantime, we have a nice climb up to Tuskar Rock ahead of us
and, hopefully a descent on a single tack. There have to be some
compensations for bringing up the rear. Stéphanie is at the helm, tucking
into the sweets, and I’m going to get a bit of sleep. The crew of Ocean's
Eleven from Land’s End”.
Message from Pierre-Yves Lautrou and Dominic Vittet on Express Sapmer,
received on Wednesday 25 May at 0248 hours French time:
“Hello! The days go by but each one is different on the NCR. The days don’t
feel long when you’re on a reach between Land's End and Tuskar, which you
devour in a day – but the nights do seem long as we are close-hauled again
on the opposite tack, a bit relieved that we’re not having to hunt down the
Fastnet close-hauled in a storm. Other than that we’re still having a
hellish jostle for the top spot with our friends from Leatherman as we
rounded the lighthouse just two boat lengths astern of them! As for the
rest, all’s well aboard and we’re trying to recover from the profusion of
energy we used up in the first few days as we’re certainly going to need
some for the finish! See you soon PYL and Mino”.
Message from Jean Galfione and Eric Péron from Talanta, received on
Wednesday 25 May at 0334 hours French time:
“All’s well aboard Talanta. It’s a cold and very dark night, the moon still
hasn’t appeared. We eased off the pace yesterday to get some good rest so we
can be powering on all cylinders tonight and tomorrow. Our aim is to hold
onto our third place and to snatch an opportunity to get level with the two
frontrunners. Right now Eric is having a nap and I’m going to warm myself up
with a little soup, whilst keeping an eye on the boat’s trim and the radar.
Until the next time, Eric and Jean the bigoudens from NW France…”
NB: Fourth retirement in the Normandy Channel Race. The crew of the Class40
Spliff contacted race management at 1900 GMT this Tuesday evening to
announce they were turning back. Andrew Dawson and Rune Aasberg reckon the
sailing conditions are becoming too difficult. They prefer to stop here and
conserve the boat.The Press HQ will try to contact them on Wednesday during
the radio sessions.
Ranking on Wednesday 25 May at 0700 GMT:
1
PORT DE CAEN OUISTREHAM
Fabien Delahaye/Bruno Jourdren
Dist to finish 300,6
Separation
0,0
2
INITIATIVES SAVEURS
Tanguy de Lamotte/Sébastien Audigane
300,7
0,0
3
TALANTA
Jean Galfione/Eric Péron
305,6
5,0
4
MARE.DE2
Jorg Riechers/Etienne David
307,8
7,1
5
L'EXPRESS - SAPMER
Pierre-Yves Lautrou/Dominic Vittet
307,9
7,3
6
DES PIEDS ET DES indexS
Damien seguin/Yohann Richomme
311,6
11,0
7
DEFI GDE - TZU HANG
Axel Strauss/Nicolas Boidevézi
331,4
30,8
8
RED
Matthias Blumencron/Boris Hermann
334,2
33,6
9
PHESHEYA RACING
Philippa Hutton/Nick Leggatt
343,6
43,0
10
GRYPHON SOLO 2
Joe Harris/Josh Hall
383,4
82,7
11
40 DEGREES
Hannah Jenner/Anna-Maria Renken
397,7
97,1
12
OCEAN ELEVEN
Stéphanie Alran/Caroline Vieille
496,1
195,5
ABD
LIVEWIRE
Stuart Dodd/Steve Kennington
ABD
SPLIFF
Andrew Dawson/Rune Aasberg
ABD
MARIE TOÎT - CAEN LA MER
Marc Lepesqueux/Michel Kleinjans
ABD
PARTOUCHE
Christophe Coatnoan/Sébastien Figue
Find the cartography, updated rankings, photos and radio sessions on the
race website: www.normandy-race.com
Join the Normandy Channel Race at
www.normandy-race.com and on Facebook.
High definition photos available at www.jmliot.com
.
User name: media@normandy.com
Password: ncr2011media
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
To update your contact details please email:
katejennings@free.fr
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