Adecco Maxi OD - Grand Prix de Lorient
by Bob Fisher 26 Jul 1999 18:53 BST
ADMIRAL'S CUP WINNERS RETURN TO ADECCO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
LORIENT-Erle Williams and Ray Davis, both members of the winning Netherlands team at the Champagne Mumm Admiral's Cup, beat a hasty retreat from Cowes at the completion of the Wolf Rock Race which culminated that series and headed for Lorient to sail on separate Maxi-One-Designs. Both
men are New Zealanders, but neither will be sailing with Ross Field on the New Zealand entry, RF Yachting.
Erle Williams, who was tactician aboard the Dutch Sydney 40 class boat, Trust Computers, returns to Team Henri-Lloyd and skipper Gunnar Krantz (SWE). Williams has been tactician for the Swedish team throughout the
Adecco World Championship, extending a relationship which began when he co-skippered Swedish Match with Krantz in the last Whitbread Round the World Race.
Ray Davis was aboard the Mumm 36, Mean Machine, which, like Trust Computers, finished second in class. Davis was a helmsman aboard the Dutch boat, relieving the skipper, Bouwe Bekking, in the offshore races. He returns to Ludde Ingvall's Skandia, the Europe entry, as starting helmsman
and tactician.
Two other Admiral's Cup sailors, Neal McDonald, who trimmed the mainsail on the British 50 footer, Venture 99, and Julian Salter, from the European Mumm 36, Moby Lines, where he was the navigator, will join the crew of Geoff Meek's South African entry, Rainbow Magic. 'Those two will certainly raise our profile,' said Meek, who finished third in the Gotland Runt, the fourth event in the Adecco World Championship.
Racing in the Grand Prix of Lorient consists of three days of windward/leeward racing, with two races each day. The first start is at 1400 French time on Tuesday and all races can be viewed live in 3-D on the Internet - www.adecco-championship.com