J/80 World Championship at Les Sables d'Olonne, France - Day 4
by Agence TB Press 12 Jul 2018 21:17 BST
7-14 July 2018
J/80 World Championship - Day 4 © Pierrick Contin /
www.pierrickcontin.com
Beware of everything!
Suspense in the J/80 Worlds
"Garatu", the Basque J/80 skippered by Iker Almondoz, remains the leader in the provisional overall ranking for the J/80 Worlds in Les Sables d'Olonne on France's Atlantic coast, which will draw to a close tomorrow on the SNSablais race zone, the club responsible for organising this international event. The Spanish crew in pole position has but a tenuous lead over their compatriots on "Hotel Princesa Yaiza", who posted a very fine performance today in a thermal breeze that dished out a steady 18 knots to fill their sails.
Rayco Tabares and his team, currently lying in second place, are piling on the pressure and are right on the money in their bid for a fifth World Champion title in the series. In third place, the crew on "Puente Romano Marbella" has its finger on the pulse, consolidating its ranking. The Spanish delegation is certainly making its mark on this edition.
Meantime, the French, big fans of the J/80, just don't seem to have found the magic ingredient in the Vendée with which to goad the Iberian hegemony, despite repeated efforts from the crews of Simon Moriceau, winner of one race today, Vianney Guilbaut on "AG+ Spars" and Sylvain Pellissier on "Intuitive Sails".
Rayco Tabares, "Hotel Princesa Yaiza", 2nd: "What a great day for our crew! We're back on the top spot in the overall ranking and we're now in a position to win the Worlds tomorrow. Our disqualification for overshooting the start a few days ago is not an issue."
Rémi Rabbé, "Akajoule", 11th: "We needed to bang out some good races today to stabilize our position in the ranking and that's what we managed to do so that's a positive. It would be excessive to hope for better conditions than these championships! This morning, we set sail in a light thermal breeze, at which point it continued to strengthen. A dream come true!"
Noémie Bessec, Ecole navale CDV 29, 20th: "We really showed what we were made of on the race zone, almost always finishing in the top 15. The Race Committee launched the races without any major interruptions and the courses were balanced. There's a fantastic atmosphere aboard amongst the girls so it's all good humoured. We're all heading in the right direction."
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