Adecco Maxi OD - Grand Prix de Lorient Day 1

HONOURS EVEN AFTER FIRST DAY AT LORIENT

LORIENT-Honours were equally shared between France and New Zealand on the opening day of the French Grand Prix, the fifth event of the Adecco World Championship for the Maxi-One-Design class. It was a day which favoured the bold decision makers and once again proved that the boats are extremely even and that it is the people who make the difference.

Ross Field's RF Yachting took the opening race in a strident manner after seeing Gunnar Krantz' Team Henri-Lloyd lead for the first half. But this race of two halves went to the persistent and consistent Kiwis. They never wavered in their object and pushed the Swedish boat into a mistake to take the lead.

There were 12-16 knots of north-easterly breeze between Pen-Men and Le Talud in Les Courreaux and it shifted wildly, so that the race committee had to change the course twice while the race was under way. The initial shift was from the right and that favoured the boats on that side of the course.

Erle Williams, the tactician on the Swedish boat, had predicted this shift and persuaded Krantz to start at the committee boat end of the line, despite a slight bias in favour of the pin end, from where the French, Le Defi Bouygues Telecom - Transiciel skippered by Bertrand Pace had made a stunning start - at full speed right at the buoy as the gun fired.

Geoff Meek (RSA) with Rainbow Magic was next to the French, but was forced to tack away after both Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI) in Alinghimax and Guido Maisto (ITA) in Seac Banche had headed to the right. Series leader, Ludde Ingvall (EUR) in Skandia, crossed Meek, but was behind the French. As they came towards the end of the two mile windward leg, the first big shift to the right occurred.

Team Henri-Lloyd was best placed to take advantage of it and led around the first mark from RF Yachting. Then came Alinghimax, Le Defi Bouygues Telecom - Transiciel and Rainbow Magic. Bertarelli had difficulty in making his mark rounding as the French passed to windward and hit the buoy, necessitating a 360 degree penalty turn on the next leg. Skandia, Seac Banche and Synphony sailed by Hans Bouscholte of Belgium completed the rounding order.

The runs were fast with the eight Maxi-One-Designs using light asymmetric spinnakers and the leaders positions remained the same for two of the three rounds, but on the last beat to windward, Ross Field tacked away from the Swedish boat soon after rounding the bottom mark and found a slight shift to the left. It allowed him to come back and cross ahead of Krantz and from that moment he covered him closely.

At the top mark, Field was 25 seconds clear and watched amazed as Krantz gybed away. He let him go and continued to sail his own race. Krantz' move enabled both Le Defi Bouygues Telecom - Transiciel and Rainbow Magic to go ahead before the finish.

'We have been hard at work on the boat for the past three weeks,' said a delighted Field, 'We have done a lot of little things to the hull, the rig and particularly the sails. We have sent most of them home to New Zealand to have them re-cut.' In addition to all this, Steve Cotton was given the steering for both races.

In the second race, it was the French who led the whole way round after once again starting from the pin end of the line. Right behind them on the line was Ludde Ingvall in Skandia and both boats tacked almost immediately to be first and second to the first mark. This race had two windward/leeward shuttles before a long beat home to the finish at Carnaval.

RF Yachting was a poor sixth at the first mark, but immediately gained two places when Gunnar Krantz and Guido Maisto were involved in a luffing incident shortly after rounding. Field went on to pass Bouscholte on the second beat and set his sights on Ingvall. The wind was particularly shifty as the boats began the long windward leg to the finish and Field read them well, but even as he drew almost level with the French, Bertrand Pace appeared to have found some extra speed and re-opened the gap between them. They were, however, only ten seconds apart on the finish line.

Finishing order:

Race one:
1. NZL  Ross Field  RF Yachting
2. FRA  Bertrand Pace  Le Defi Bouygues Telecom - Transiciel
3. RSA  Geoff Meek  Rainbow Magic
4. SWE  Gunnar Krantz  Team Henri-Lloyd
5. EUR  Ludde Ingvall  Skandia
6. ITA  Guido Maisto  Seac Banche
7. SUI  Ernesto Bertarelli  Alinghimax
8. BEL  Hans Bouscholte  Synphony
 
Race two:
1. FRA
2. NZL
3. EUR
4. RSA
5. SWE
6. BEL
7. ITA
8. SUI

You may follow the races live on the internet site : www.adecco-championship.com/uk/

Editor's Note: it really is worth taking a look at the website for the Maxi One-Design's - if you are online, during a race you can follow it live, in 3-d, and from any boat. I really recommend it.