Grand Prix Petit Navire - Day 5

Coupe de Bretagne (Brittany Cup) for the Dragons, Sinewave victorious

Fine weather and beautiful seas coloured the bay of Douarnenez for the second and final day of racing in the Dragon’s Coupe de Bretagne today. The 64 crews made the most of conditions to fine tune their craft prior to the Dragon Grand Prix, which begins on Wednesday. From 1400 hours tomorrow, within the framework of the Nautic Champion’s Race, world champions, record holders and Olympic medallists will be measuring themselves against the series’ top specialists.

Complicated

The Coupe de Bretagne drew to a close today after five races were sailed over two days. It was the perfect opportunity for the Dragon sailors to hone their elegant if demanding machines and, for some, to gain a psychological advantage prior to the Dragon Grand Prix Petit Navire. The top players immediately set the tone for the event yesterday, but found that they suffered this morning during the first race. Indeed the strategy and finesse of their trimming weren’t a great asset in the massive wind shifts. As such Gwen Chapalain, who is racing on Ar Youleg (FRA 365), third in the ranking after two races yesterday, confirmed that in just a matter of minutes, he watched helpless as 20 neighbouring boats stole past whilst he was pinned to the water, trapped in an area with no wind. The upshot of this as the day’s racing came to an end was that Ar Youleg had dropped down to 8th place. Dirastarc’h (FRA 355) came out rather better and is the top French crew after ranking 3rd overall. This first race ran from 1150 to 1348 hours and it was the American crew of the appropriately named ‘Clairvoyant’(USA 310), who ultimately stole the show.

The second race, which saw some better weather conditions, enabled Sinewave (GER 996) to take victory both in the race and the overall rankings, Müller and Hoesch really getting the upper hand over their adversaries and proving that they are the team to beat in this 10th Grand Prix Petit Navire. “It’s a very difficult boat” explains Luc Pillot, Gold medallist in the 4.70 in Séoul. “It’s heavy and its angled rudder doesn’t react quickly at the helm. As such you have to adapt to it and anticipate it, but even though my dinghy experience helps me a lot, the Dragon requires the utmost precision. Lady Jane is a new boat (FRA 316) and the Coupe de Bretagne is enabling us to gauge our performance prior to the Grand Prix. The speeds are similar but each mark rounding is complicated, especially when there are nearly 100 boats as will be the case here! If all goes to plan we have the potential to make the top 10!”

The first day was irregular to say the least for Lady Jane, with some wide ranging results (55, 44, 5) and today, after a 49th place, the crew from Marseilles rounded off the Coupe de Bretagne in 20th, which amounts to 36th in the overall ranking. Gildas Philippe on Dirastarc’h confirms that the first race was far from relaxing: “There wasn’t a steady breeze this morning and when it began to warm up a little, the thermal effects came into play and, to cut a long story short, we weren’t on the right tack and we really had to pull out all the stops to get back into the action. For the second race, we made a poor strategic decision at the start and our worst fears were realised. In the bay it often works on the left and in this instance there was a little something to be had to the right. As such we have some work on our hands to get back with the others but we’re managing it slowly but surely. In fact, even though we only sail on a Dragon for two weeks a year, we’re improving our technique and reaping the rewards!”

Further snippets…

With the operation “The whole of Douarnenez on the water’ organised during the course of yesterday, over 2,000 people gathered in the port of Tréboul. Though not everyone got a ride in a kayak, a skiff, small craft, old sailing ships or yachts, placed at their disposal by the local authorities, everyone did have access to a wealth of information linked to the sea.

Finally, the Grand Prix Petit Navire Optimist began this morning with 190 ten year olds from Douarnenez and the neighbouring villages. The ‘soap dishes’ brightened up the landscape with their multicoloured sails. One of the most breathtaking on the race zone was the Ukranian boat (UKR 9), christened CCCP, which changes colour according to the light…

More information at www.grandprixpetitnavire.com