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Thursday 24 February – 1700 hours GMT
Extreme Sailing Series 2011
Muscat Grand Prix (Sultanate of Oman) – Act 1
Resounding victory for Edmond de Rothschild Group in Muscat
The 2011 season has begun on a high for Gitana Team. Winner of the first
Grand Prix of the year for the past two seasons, Venice in 2009 and Sète in
2010, the Extreme Edmond de Rothschild Group has once again proven to be a
force to be reckoned with in the opening event. Indeed history has repeated
itself but this victory in the Muscat Grand Prix was certainly not a mere
formality. Pierre Pennec and his three crew – Hervé Cunningham, Thierry
Fouchier and Christophe Espagnon – had to fend off stiff competition for
five days of competition. Finally, after thirty-two races on the Omani race
zone, the catamaran fitted out by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild got the
better of some of the world’s best sailors. The crew of Artemis Racing, who
made life especially difficult for the men of Gitana Team, took second
place, while Roman Hagara and his team complete the event podium.
Leading the way from the very first day of racing, the crew of Edmond de
Rothschild Group managed to keep their rivals at a safe distance until the
last race of the Grand Prix. However, the minute they crossed the finish
line of this last race, the four sailors that make up Gitana Team exploded
with delight: “What a day! Clearly I’m very happy with the result, though
I’m especially proud of the way we won this Grand Prix. We managed to play
it so that we were relatively consistent, even though the third day of
racing didn’t go quite as well as the others. I’m incredibly lucky to sail
with such a crew. I really enjoyed helming Edmond de Rothschild Group, and
the breezy sailing on Monday in particular. In the short courses there was a
massive amount of pressure and I was a little tenser. I couldn’t afford to
put a foot wrong, not with a crew like mine. Hervé, Thierry and Christophe
are as strong technically as they are tactically. They have a very good
feeling and they are physically powerful. I have a dream team,” said Pierre
Pennec in tribute to his crew, before continuing with great emotion: “This
victory makes me feel extremely emotional… It’s been ten years since I’ve
been entrusted with the helm of a catamaran. Baron and Baroness de
Rothschild, along with Gitana’s team manager Cyril Dardashti, have given me
an incredible opportunity. They believed in the potential of this crew and
it was daring challenge. I cannot thank them enough.”
A loyal member of the crew on the catamaran in the colours of the Edmond de
Rothschild Group, a usually reserved Hervé Cunningham, couldn’t conceal his
delight this evening after five days of competition where the tension and
pressure were constant: “I don’t think the competition necessarily expected
our crew to be up at this level of the game, but we race for a family which
has a history steeped in sailing and on a boat which has already performed
very well over the past two seasons, that the pressure on our shoulders was
massive. However, it also came as a great benefit because it pushed us into
working very hard prior to this first meeting. The Extreme Sailing Series is
an atypical circuit and even though we had confidence in our team and our
potential, there was still an unknown element in how long we would need to
adapt to Pierre, our new skipper, and to perform well in this highly unique
championship. He was fantastic, right on top of his game and competitive
from the very first race. We had a tough day on Tuesday and that could have
unsettled us but we joined forces, as has been the tradition on this boat
since we began racing on this circuit. We talked to each other a lot,
without mincing our words and we knew just what to do to adjust our aim the
following day. Our weakness related to the start phases and Pierre took on
his responsibilities as skipper-helmsman to reverse the trend,” assured the
bowman of the boat.
This first Grand Prix of the season was very hotly contested and the calibre
of the line-up lived up to expectations. With eight events reindexing, the
men of Gitana Team know this evening that it will be a complicated season,
but the foursome are relishing the challenge ahead: “When we see the
intensity there was in this Muscat Grand Prix and knowing there are still
eight stages to go, it promises to be a very fine season. We’re going to
have to continue working as the learning curves of the crews who are
pursuing us are still long. However, that’s exactly what is driving us on
and what will make this 2011 circuit so enthralling.”
The Extreme Sailing Series teams will now be heading to Qingdao, China,
where racing takes place from 13 to 17 April for the second act.
The crew speak out:
Thierry Fouchier, headsail trimmer: “We had to hunt down this victory: the
race format is more complicated than last year. There are a lot of boats on
the race zone with a fleet of eleven competitors in total and the level has
gone up a notch. We knew we had potential but we had to apply it on the
water, which isn’t always very easy. We just had to take it one race at a
time and above all not give up when we got a poor result. The strength of
our crew lies in the trust we have in each other. Pierre relies on us a
great deal and we rely on his a lot as ultimately the decision about
trajectory is down to him. Aboard the boat, we managed to put in some good
moves and some not so good moves, but even in the tricky moments, we managed
to reindex united and optimistic. We still have a lot of progress to make and
we’re going to have to put more work into raising our game as the event goes
on. This past week of racing has been a very steep learning curve for us.”
Christophe Espagnon, indexsail trimmer: “I’m obviously happy because, in
addition to pulling off a win, the fact that I’m a newcomer to the team
enabled me to really get a lot of enjoyment from the experience. Pierre and
I have known each other for 20 years but it’s the first time we’d sailed
together. We’re friends in life but we were adversaries in the Tornado
competition for many years. This understanding, which is based on mutual
trust, naturally facilitated my integration in the team. These past five
days of racing have been really intense, especially as we went straight from
one race to the next in the afternoons. In fact I’d be incapable of saying
how many races we’d raced in total. This first place was something that was
built on each day. We took one race at a time without focusing on the
yo-yoing of the points and the ranking. I think that this was the right way
of going about it to ensure we were as confident and calm as possible.”
Ranking for the Muscat Grand Prix on 24 February (after thirty-two races)
1. Edmond de Rothschild Group (Pierre Pennec) – 253 points
2. Artemis Racing (Terry Hutchinson) – 243 points
3. Red Bull Extreme Sailing (Roman Hagara) – 239 points
4. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) – 236 points
5. Luna Rossa (Max Sirena) – 234 points
6. Alinghi (Tanguy Cariou) – 217 points
7. The Wave, Muscat (Torvar Mirsky) – 208 points
8. Oman Air (Sydney Gavignet) – 188 points
9. Team Extreme (Roland Gaebler) – 140 points
10. Niceforyou (Alberto Barovier) – 95 points
11. Team GAC Pindar (Ian Williams) – 62 points
Ranking for the Extreme Sailing Series 2011 after the Muscat Grand Prix
1. Edmond de Rothschild Group (FRA) – 11 points
2. Artemis Racing (SWE) – 10 points
3. Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT) – 9 points
4. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZ) – 8 points
5. Luna Rossa (ITA) – 7 points
6. Alinghi (SUI) – 6 points
7. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) – 5 points
8. Oman Air (OMA) – 4 points
9. Team Extreme (EUR) – 3 points
10. Niceforyou (ITA) – 2 points
11. Team GAC Pindar (GBR) – 1 point
The crew of Edmond de Rothschild Group
Pierre Pennec - Helmsman, skipper
Christophe Espagnon – indexsail trimmer, tactics
Thierry Fouchier – headsail trimmer
Hervé Cunningham - Bowman
The Extreme Edmond de Rothschild Group supports the Joves Navegants
foundation
The family of Baron Benjamin de Rothschild has always had a passion for
nautical activities, a commitment embodied today by the Gitana Team. As such
the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations have quite naturally been sensitive to
the mission of Joves Navegants and touched by the profound collective
commitment to helping these young people in precarious situations.
Inspired by the methods of British Sailing associations, which help young
people in difficulty, some enthusiastic sailors who have settled in Palma,
Mallorca, decided to create Joves Navegants. Aware of the complicated
situation for certain youngsters on the island in serious economic and
family difficulties, they have chosen to share their passion. The foundation
organises several types of trips out to sea on the yacht, Galaxie. These
days out involve journeys of discovery, awareness campaigns for sustainable
development, participation in races and training aids to enable certain
youngsters to envisage sailing as a professional career.
The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation will be supporting Joves Navegants in
the organisation of trips out to sea during the summer, enabling the
necessary technical improvements to be made on the Galaxie and making it
possible for a team to take part in the “Ruta de la Sal” race in April.
For further information:
www.jovesnavegants.org
www.ebdrf.com
Discover all the latest news from the Gitana Team at www.gitana-team.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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