French Nacra 17 team build Spanish castles in the air

Franck Cammas and Sophie de Turckheim on day 3 of ISAF Sailing World Cup Mallorca © Richard Langdon / www.oceanimages.co.uk

From 15 to 21 September 2014, Franck Cammas and Sophie de Turckheim will be competing in their first World Nacra 17 Championship in Santander in Spain. Like the nine other Olympic series, the Olympic catamaran, which has the particularity of a two-up mixed crew, gathers together the finest inshore racers on the planet, all of whom have their sights on the Olympic Games in Rio 2016; the undisputed Holy Grail of dinghy sailing. Aboard Groupama, the company's trusty skipper and his crew are focused on this latest event, an important but not decisive stage in the Olympic selection rounds.

Following on from the European championships and the Test Event in Rio, the French Nacra 17 team quickly set a course for the capital of Galicia so as to familiarise itself with a race zone, which can prove tricky: "As soon as there's some wind, the waves pick up pretty quickly and the sailing becomes very technical on the Nacra. It's a race zone, which should really suit crews who have a lot of sports catamaran experience, which isn't quite the case for us yet. I think Billy Besson and Iker Martinez, who know the region well, should be at ease in this championship," comments the skipper of Groupama.

For his part, coach Franck Citeau echoes this sentiment: "It's a very labour intensive race zone as the swell is not in line with the wind. Added to that, the courses are marked out across a thirty-mile radius. Some rounds are in the river, others in the open sea and it will change each day. We've done two training sessions, which enabled us to get a handle on each of the zones. It was very interesting as we experienced the whole spectrum of conditions".

Sea, wind, tide: all ingredients which our crew will need to quickly try to get a handle on against the series' top specialists. For over a year already, whilst the fleet's technical level has been increasing in their bid to tame the Nacra 17, certain teams are constantly improving: the English, the Italians, as well as the Danish, not to mention the Australians, the Spanish and even the Argentinians. Suffice to say that against this international competition, French ambitions are going to be challenged.

Reigning world champions, always in the top 3, to date leaders Billy Besson and Marie Riou are impossible to budge in the French team. Demonstrating impressive ease and speed in the breeze, formidable in the medium wind and not shabby in the lightest winds, they have what it takes to pull off a double whammy if they manage to avoid making small errors, which cost them dearly sometimes.

Behind them, French hopes lie on the shoulders of Franck and Sophie of course, as well as Ogereau - Vandame and Vaireaux - Audinet, who are well placed and lying in ambush.

Incapable of predicting the outcome, the French coach notes the quality of preparation among each of the crews: "It's the series' first world championship. Everything has been optimised down to the finest detail and the stakes are high. We're in the second half of the Olympic preparation and we'll be concentrating our efforts on the best French crews after this championship".

Obviously Franck and Sophie will do all they can to hold onto their rank, but the skipper of Groupama is steering away from this particular matter right now: "The Olympic selection rounds are likely to take place during the world championships at the start of 2016 in the USA. As such, Santander is just a step on the road to the States. We still need to progress, particularly in breezy conditions. Since the start of the year, our performances have been improving, though you can't necessarily see that in the rankings. As such we need to continue in this vein".

Already very at ease in the light and medium airs, the crew of Groupama are sure to really battle hard against the 80 competitors embroiled in these Worlds, 6 of whom are French.

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