C-Class Catamaran Championship at Restronguet Sailing Club - Day 4

Day 4 at the C-Class Catamaran Championship © Meredith Block / C-Class

Day 4 at the C-Class Catamaran Championship © Meredith Block / C-Class

Day 4 at the C-Class Catamaran Championship © Meredith Block / C-Class

New Little Cup Champion guaranteed

France, Switzerland advance to finals, Defender comes up short

The 2013 International C-Class Catamaran Championship has been characterized by the near-absolute dominance of Franck Cammas and Louis Viat and their brilliant Groupama C design. Until yesterday, the legendary French offshore sailor had only been beaten in one race, and then only because crew Louis Viat snapped a trapeze wire and flew off the boat. That would change yesterday in the final race of the qualifying round, and not from the second or third place Hydros boats; instead, it was 2010 Little Cup Champ Canaan who would romp to a more than 90-second victory over Cammas to the cheers of the entire spectator fleet – including Groupama's support boats. "Our entire team has been working for about 50 hours to reconstruct this wing," said helmsman Billy Gooderham. "They've been operating on coffee and Red Bull for the past two days, and beating Groupama by such a long way is maybe the ultimate reward."

America's Lars Guck and Max Kramers proved the competitiveness of a histotical piece; on nearly her 20th anniversary, Guck's Cogito sailed to a blinding 2,2,2 scoreline, beating Cammas for the first time this week. Cogito and Canaan both benefitted from the lighter air, and left the fleet wondering what might have been if Canaan and Cogito had kept their wings intact over the entire regatta.

Cammas and crew Louis Viat scored a perfect 7 points from 7 races after dropping their two high scores, but the Hydros I boat of Jeremie Lagarrigue and Billy Besson had a far more complicated route to clinch their finals place.

With the forecast for decreasing winds after Race 7 and close to tied on points between he and teammate Mischa Heemskerk (Hydros II), Lagarrigue decided to flip over his foiling daggerboards, removing the horizontal "wing" from the water and improving light wind performance. It is a complicated maneuver requiring a crew in the water, and the French duo on the Swiss boat barely completed the change in time for the starting gun of Race 8. "With the points such that one of us was almost guaranteed to advance to the finals, we were looking to get some data on ultra-light air performance, so we made the switch," said Lagarrigue. In the meantime, Heemskerk had followed suit, with heartbreaking results. "We meant for Mischa and Bastian to leave their foils in their intended configuration but they did not get the message in time," Explained Lagarrigue. Hydros II couldn't get their foils switched in time, and they withdrew from the race, taking them out of contention for the final. To add insult to injury, the wind picked up to its highest point of the day just moments later, forcing Lagarrigue to withdraw from the race, tied on points after 8 races with Fred Eaton and Magnus Clarke. In a race against the clock, Lagarrigue and Besson frantically changed back to their normal, foiling configuration; Heemskerk could never get sorted out and scored a final early to ensure he could get the foils back to their normal configuration for the final race of the day. Besson managed to hold on to his lead over Eaton by just 3 points.

Eaton and Clarke came back from a slow start to finish the qualifying round in third place, while Americans Lars Guck and Max Kramers aboard Steve Clarke's non-foiling veteran boat Cogito turned in a blinding 2,2,2 performance to sneak ahead of Heemskerk for fourth place. The fleet will square off tomorrow to challenge for the final podium position in a fleet racing format, while Cammas and Besson will face off for a first-to-four Little Cup Match.

Racing begins Thursday at 1100.

Results after Day 4: (nine races, 2 discards)

Groupama C qualified for the final of the Little Cup (from Groupama sailing team)

At the end of the fleet races that have been contested since Monday in Falmouth, UK, Franck Cammas and Louis Viat have qualified for the final, which will kick off tomorrow, Thursday. The winner of seven out of nine races in light to strong winds, the French team left only crumbs for their rivals, among which were the Swiss team of Hydros, which will be Groupama C's duelling partner.

Exclusively designed by Groupama sailing team's design unit and a selection of renowned architects such as Guillaume Verdier, Benjamin Muyl and Martin Fisher, Groupama C has demonstrated exceptional performance. An essential element in the ability to make good speed, the 7.5 metre long catamaran has also shown herself to be very reliable, despite the complexity of the trimming systems required and the control of the foils and the wing.

A genuine floating laboratory like the AC72s in the America's Cup itself, the outcome of which will be decided tonight in San Francisco, the C Class competition serves as a kind of antechamber to this star event.

As such it's with great pride that Groupama sailing team earn their ticket for the final against champions Jérémy Lagarrigue and Billy Besson (reigning Formula 18 world champions), supported by a Swiss bank.

Day 4 at the C-Class Catamaran Championship - photo © Yvan Zedda

Crew to Franck Cammas, the youngster Louis Viat couldn't disguise his delight: "It's really good to have won the fleet races, but that's just one stage of the event. From tomorrow we'll be battling it out with Hydros in match racing configuration, in fairly strong winds, which they are quick in, especially downwind. We'll need to put up a solid performance even though we're very quick upwind".

As usual, the skipper of Groupama C is very focused and there's definitely no chance of him counting his chickens yet: "The weather forecast isn't very favourable on Friday and Saturday with some strong wind on the cards, which may mean we won't be able to sail. As such we'll need to be good from tomorrow in what will be a very different type of racing from that of previous days. Our rivals aren't newcomers to this format and they go very fast at times".

A member of the Groupama design team and a rather special observer, Martin Fisher comments: "The Swiss on Hydros are very quick from time to time. On average though, Groupama C makes slightly better headway I think". Whatever happens, the prize for curiosity goes to the Frenchies and their meticulous organisation, which is sometimes at odds with an environment that skilfully combines research, performance, sailing and simplicity.

See you tomorrow from 1100 hours then for three duels off Falmouth, whilst the other nine competitors continue with fleet racing.

Team Hydros qualified for the finals (from Team Hydros)

After three days racing in fleet in Falmouth Bay in typical fall conditions (fog, drizzle and moderate wind), both Hydros catamarans - sailing for Switzerland during the world championship of C-Class - showed that they definitely belonged to the world elite.

After 9 races, SUI 1 (Besson/Lagarrigue) is ranked second, while SUI 11 (Heemskerk/Tentij) is ranked number 5 of the first part of the competition.

"Our goal is achieved, Hydros is in final", cried out Jérémie Lagarrigue, Hydros project manager, at the end of this emotionally intense day. "We have worked hard, and we are proud of this result. From now on, we are going to sail against an incredible opponent: Franck Cammas. It will be a little bit like a match race between David and Goliath... But we will fight, and give all that we have!"

As from tomorrow, the best two teams – the French Franck Cammas on Groupama and the crew SUI 1 - will start the final races of this world championship in match race (one against one), while the other competitors will continue racing in fleet.

Franck Cammas is one of the most talented sailors of his generation. He has, among other things, won the last race around the world (The Volvo Ocean Race) and holds six oceanic multihull world champion titles.

The engineers and all the technical team of Hydros will work all night long in order to optimize SUI 1, C-Class catamaran of Jérémie and Billy. They will especially try to find solutions to make it even more efficient upwind, without losing speed downwind.

Day 4 at the C-Class Catamaran Championship - photo © Loris von Siebenthal / Hydros

On their part, Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij will continue the competition in fleet aiming the third place of the world championship.

"We did our best, but we are still learning on board these complex sailboats", declared Mischa Heemskerk at the end of the day. "It is a very good thing that Jérémie and Billy race against Groupama in final. As for us, we will focus on the rest of the competition, and to do everything to finish third ! We totally support Jérémie and Billy!"

More Information:

• The Event Website
• C-Class Facebook Page
• Little Cup Live Video @ UStream
• Live Tracking @ Sailracer
• HD video @ Vimeo
• C-Class Twitter Feed
• Hashtag: #LittleCup