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26.05.2011
VICTORY FOR AUDIGANE AND DE LAMOTTE
Victory in the Normandy Channel Race goes to ‘Initiatives Saveurs’!
Co-skippers Tanguy de Lamotte et Sébastien Audigane, crossed the finish line
in first place at 11:25:25 GMT this Thursday despite having to complete the
final 70 miles of the race with their indexsail shredded in two!
Tonight the first seven crews have crossed the finish line in the second
edition of the Normandy Channel Race. The two reindexing podium places have
gone to Fabien Delahaye and Bruno Jourdren aboard Port de Caen – Ouistreham
and Damien Seguin and Yoann Richomme aboard Des pieds et des indexs.
Their comments just after the finish:
Tanguy de Lamotte and Sébastien Audigane, Initiatives Saveurs, winner of the
Normandy Channel Race:
“The indexsail ripped in half just after Raz Blanchard. At that point we
still had 70 miles left to go… We must have lost an average of 1 knot in
all that but we kept the gennaker aloft in 30 knots so we were flying! We
were making between 16 and 20 knots along the ground, flat out! We dumped
the gennaker two hours before the finish. We knew we were going slower. Séb
was helming and I was keeping an eye on the rankings and the distance
between us and our pursuers. It’s no secret, we certainly didn’t think we’d
bagged the win… We feared we’d lose out on the first place all the way to
the finish, but we gave our all to sail at our best.
We’re happy to win the race. It was a closely fought battle from beginning
to end! We haven’t changed our clothing since the start. I’m still in the
same lycra and the same socks. All I want is to get my boots off. We’re done
in but we’ve really enjoyed it. It was fantastic! Intense but fantastic!”
Fabien Delahaye and Bruno Jourdren, Port de Caen – Ouistreham, second in the
Normandy Channel Race:
We had some peaks of speed at 24 knots, which was nice! In conditions like
that, you’re just linking together a series of manœuvres and it takes a lot
out of you. I can’t even remember the last time I slept. We haven’t eaten
much. All of a sudden we had no gas left in the bottle so we couldn’t cook
up a hot meal or a tea during the race. We tried to eat cold ready-made
meals but it wasn’t great.
At 1800 GMT yesterday, we were neck and neck with Initiatives Saveurs. One
minute they were ahead, the next it was us. That’s all we were doing the
whole night until a big cloud came along. It was full-on. We decided to
reduce the sail area and pull the sock down over the spinnaker, but it got
caught. We struggled with it for an hour and then finally the spinnaker was
unusable. After that we had issues with our code 0, so to cut a long story
short, it was one thing after another. We lost 6 miles with all that. That
was enough for them to get ahead! But we didn’t give up, because at 0700
GMT, Des pieds et des indexs were ahead of us, and suddenly we were working
flat out on deck. Bruno went into overdrive! We were constantly on the
sheets and managed to get level with them 2 miles from Barfleur and
ultimately we recovered our second place!”
Damien Seguin and Yoann Richomme aboard Des pieds et des indexs, third in the
Normandy Channel Race
We were on the attack as soon as we rounded the SW tip of England. We were
under full indexsail and small spinnaker. I think we were the only ones to be
carrying those sails at that point. It made the difference. We were flat
out, sailing at 200%(!) of our potential throughout the night and all the
way to the finish. We were second just off Caen - Ouistreham but whilst we
were on a reach they got past us. We’re happy to be back. Throughout the
race, we just got closer and closer to this third place, without ever
managing to snatch it back for good, so it’s great that we got there in the
end!
We had a ball. There were some phases that were more difficult than others.
When you’re having to take the close-hauled sailing on the chin like that,
it’s hard. If I’d be asked whether I was enjoying myself halfway round, I’m
not sure if I’d have given the same response as today! It’s just as well we
didn’t go to Fastnet because that really would have been long, especially
for those at the back of the fleet!
The arrivals
1 INITIATIVES SAVEURS Tanguy de Lamotte / Sébastien Audigane 3d 22h 25m 25s
2 PORT DE CAEN OUISTREHAM Fabien Delahaye / Bruno Jourdren 3d 23h 4m 12s
3 DES PIEDS ET DES indexS Damien Seguin / Yoann Richomme 3d 23h 12m 35s
4 MARE.DE Jorg Riechers / Etienne David 3d 23h 40m 14s
5 L'EXPRESS – SAPMER Pierre-Yves Lautrou / Dominic Vittet 3d 23h 42m 56s
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
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