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Tuesday 11 October – 1500 hours BST
Gitana Team
Krys Match astern, Almeria ahoy
In early October, the stable created by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild back in
2000 has been successfully combining two leading circuits on its sports
programme. On 2 October 2011, Pierre Pennec and his crew took victory in the
Nice Grand Prix, the seventh meeting of 2011 for the Extreme Sailing Series
circuit, and thus found itself at the top of the championship leaderboard,
just two events shy of the end of the competition. A few days later, on 6
October, it was over to Sébastien Josse and his crew to take to the stage in
the Krys Match; the inaugural race for the 3-day Multi One Championship,
which gathered together the first three MODs and the prototype Gitana 11, on
the waters of the Baie de Quiberon. With slack periods not being part of the
Gitana Team’s vocabulary over the past few weeks, the team is switching back
to Extreme 40 mode tomorrow, where the men of Edmond de Rothschild Group
will be contesting the Almeria Grand Prix through until Sunday.
Multi One Design: The Krys Match as a trial run
The Krys Match, contested in La Trinité-sur-Mer, Brittany from 6 to 8
October, represented the inaugural exhibition event for the Multi One
Championship. The first point-scoring race of the championship – a crewed
transatlantic – will set off from New York on 7 July 2012, bound for Brest.
In the build-up to this major meeting, the crews of the first three 70 feet
one-designs were able to size each other up during some short courses, which
are set to form the ‘inshore’ element of the future programme. As the final
touches are being applied to its MOD Edmond de Rothschild Group, the Gitana
Team were able to join in these festivities as a guest of the organisation
team. As such, Sébastien Josse, accompanied by seven crew, took part in the
racing aboard the 77-feet prototype trimaran, Gitana 11, which was
considerably modified for the last Route du Rhum, but had the advantage of
looking very similar to the new Multi One Designs.
After three days of intense racing, the majority of which was contested in
breezy conditions, Sébastien Josse reviewed this baptism of fire for us and
had clearly draw some lessons from this first confrontation: “In contrast to
some of my rivals with a multihull background, this Krys Match represented
my first fleet competition at the helm of a trimaran. And although we
weren’t exactly racing on the same boat as them, we’ve learnt a lot from the
past few days. On a personal level I wondered how incisive I’d be at the
starts, as I’m only just discovering what this kind of racing is all about,
but I reckon that I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. Gitana 11 didn’t appear
in the official standing due to the size difference, but I think that
besides this slight edge we had, the crew did an excellent job in terms of
cohesion, manœuvres and also the strategy on the race zone. The results are
fairly positive, even though we still have a lot of work to do”, explained
the skipper of Gitana: “I was keen to see how the MOD70s would handle on the
racecourse and we were also anxious to trial the ‘inshore’ formats because
it’s all pretty new and unique if we compare it to the era of the Orma
Grands Prix. In fact, the courses are shorter and the races last about
thirty minutes. This Krys Match fitted nicely into the work schedule we’d
drawn up with the Gitana Team at the start of the year. Our participation
enabled us to get a taste of part of our future programme. We mustn’t forget
that the ‘city races’ won’t make up the bulk of the circuit; the
transatlantic crossings and the different legs from one port to the next on
the European Tour representing a large part of the championship. However, as
regards this inshore element, analysis of the Krys Match is already enabling
us to define the areas we need to work on over the winter”, concluded
Sébastien Josse, who is more keen than ever to take MOD No.4 in hand.
This much awaited moment is fast approaching now as in exactly fifteen days’
time – Tuesday 25 October – the MOD Edmond de Rothschild Group will be
launched in Lorient. The fourth one-design of this new international class,
the Gitana trimaran will have a few weeks of trials before definitively
teaming up with the rest of the fleet fitted out by Baron Benjamin de
Rothschild.
The crew of Gitana 11 in the Krys Match
Sébastien Josse (Skipper - helmsman), Christophe Espagnon (tactician),
Antoine Koch (navigator), Jean-Baptiste Levaillant (indexsail trimmer),
Thomas Rouxel (trimmer), Olivier Douillard / Cyril Dardashti (trimmer),
David Boileau (pitman), Florent Chastel (bowman)
Extreme Sailing Series: Edmond de Rothschild Group on Spanish time
The eighth and penultimate Grand Prix of the Extreme Sailing Series season
begins tomorrow in Almeria. As such, just ten days after the Nice leg drew
to a close, with the men of Edmond de Rothschild Group making a clean sweep
of the prizes, the 40-feet one-design catamarans are back in action. Indeed,
the Extreme Sailing Series fleet is returning to Andalusia and the port of
Almeria for the third year running. However, in 2011, in contrast to
previous years, the Spanish waters won’t play host to the end of the
circuit.
Renowned for serving up the perfect sailing conditions, the Iberian city may
well trip a few boats up though, particularly during the stadium races which
are run in the heart of the commercial port. It’s a demanding and disturbed
race zone then, which will unquestionably make life difficult for the eleven
crews. In order to honour the Spanish national holiday, which is celebrated
on 12 October, the organisers are slightly modifying the usual programme. In
this way, Pierre Pennec’s men and their rivals will kick-off the Grand Prix
with a day of stadium racing, right in front of the local public. Then on
Thursday and Friday, the boats will head offshore for some Open Water races,
before getting back into the arena in the commercial port for a weekend of
racing.
Of note are a few slight changes to the line-up. Indeed the crew of Artemis
Racing, with all their time being taken up fine tuning their future boat for
the America’s Cup, has withdrawn from the competition. However, the arrival
of a new crew within the Extreme Sailing Series will ensure the usual
eleven-strong line-up. The Extreme 40 Team Tilt is joining the fleet in
Almeria and will be helmed by the Swiss sailor Alex Schneiter, who is better
known on the M2 circuit. Finally, the star skipper from Emirates Team New
Zealand, Dean Barker, will be replaced by Australian Adam Beashel, as was
the case in the Cowes and Trapani Grands Prix.
The crew of Edmond de Rothschild Group
Pierre Pennec (Skipper / Helmsman), Christophe Espagnon (indexsail trimmer),
Thierry Fouchier (headsail trimmer), Hervé Cunningham (bowman)
Standing for the Extreme Sailing Series 2011 after seven Grands Prix
1. Edmond de Rothschild Group (FRA) – 61 points
2. Luna Rossa (ITA) – 59 points
3. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZ) – 54 points
4. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) – 52 points
5. Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT) – 49 points
6. Artemis Racing (SWE) – 48 points
7. Alinghi (SUI) – 48 points
8. Oman Air (OMA) – 38 points
9. Team GAC Pindar (GBR) – 22 points
10. Niceforyou (ITA) – 16 points
11. Team Extreme (EUR) – 15 points
Find all the latest news from the Gitana Team at
www.gitana-team.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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