Kiel Sailing City prepares

The MOD70 fleet in Kiel © Andi Robertson / MOD S.A.

Six points scoring Betfair City Races in the compact confines of the Kiel Fjord are expected to draw large, vociferous crowds as the perfect, high intensity prelude to Sunday's send off for the MOD70 European Tour's 1200 miles first leg to Dùn Laoghaire, Dublin.

Thursday was a light winds dress rehearsal, an important Media Day to introduce the MOD70 concept of high speed, evenly matched one design offshore trimarans to an enthusiastic German media. Honours were shared between Musandam-Oman Sail and FONCIA over the two practice races, which proved a useful introduction to the very tight boundaries of the race course.

The fjord is only 750 metres at the widest part of the course narrows to about 350 metres.

Close action is assured and local organisers are confident the sailing-mad citizens of Kiel Sailing City will turn out in their tens of thousands between Friday and Saturday's package of six City Races – three per afternoon - and for Sunday afternoon's start to Leg 1.

The short course City Race series are scheduled in Kiel, Dublin, Cascais and Marseille comprising about 20% of the points available on MOD70 European Tour which links Kiel, Dublin, Cascais, Marseille and will finish in Genoa, Italy on 2nd October.

Over the next five weeks the five MOD70's will take on some 5000 miles of offshore racing on legs of between 550 and 1200 miles in length. The longest, and what looks likely to be the toughest is the first leg. Two course options are available – round the rugged north of Scotland, down the west of the Hebrides through the North Channel to Dùn Laoghaire, Dublin, or through the Channel and the Celtic Sea. Already forecasts are predicting a low pressure system in the north with more than 35 kts of wind.

The mix of tough offshore legs and short course intense racing and the fact there is just one rest day at each stop, with the exception of Marseille where there are more, places a premium on offshore skills and experience – especially weather and routing, but also physical strength, focus and stamina sustained over the next five weeks. In that mix there needs to be changes of top level helms and trimmers as well as the hardware skills to keep the boats in top racing condition offshore. So crew choices have been varied.

New to the MOD70 and the Multi One Championship is the recent Volvo Ocean Race round the world winners Franck Cammas who sails as navigator on Stève Ravussin 's Race for Water, with his hugely accomplished Groupama crew-mate Thomas Coville who sails as a helm-trimmer. Also from the Volvo winning Groupama team is Charles Caudrelier who will be navigator on FONCIA.

Others with a strong background in the Volvo round the world race are Kiel's Michi Mueller who joins his former Puma crew mate Sidney Gavignet on Musandam-Oman Sail for the inshore races, while Groupe Edmond de Rothschild's skipper Sébastien Josse led ABN AMRO 2 in the 2005-6 Volvo Ocean Race. Many will know Kiel from the Olympic circuit.

There are a good cross section of Olympic class sailors, mainly from the Tornado such as Yann Guichard (Spindrift racing) who was fourth in Sydney in 2000, (behind Germany's bronze medal winning Roland Gaebler who is colour commentator here), but also Xavier Revil (FONCIA) Christophe Espagnon (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild) and Olivier Douillard (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild). Tanguy Cariou (Race for Water) sailed the 470 in Sydney and was 1998 world champion. From Musandam-Oman Sail Jeff Curzon sailed in the 470 class and Thomas Le Breton narrowly missed Olympic selection for the Finn class for 2008.

There are match racers like Francois Morvan (Race for Water) and Julien Falxa (FONCIA) and America's Cup winner Nicolas Texier (FONCIA), whilst with a background on the solo Solitaire du Figaro there are Yann Eliès, the 2012 winner who joins Spindrift racing, Thierry Chabagny (FONCIA) and Thomas Rouxel (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild).

Round the world Jules Verne Record holders present and past include Emmanuel Leborgne (FONCIA), Texier, Jean-Baptiste Levaillant (Spindrift racing), Florent Chastel (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild), Kevin Escoffier (Spindrift racing), Britain's Brian Thompson (Musandam-Oman Sail).

And sailors who have passed from the ORMA 60 to the MOD70 include Stève Ravussin (Race for Water), Michel Desjoyeaux (FONCIA), Guichard, Cammas, Coville, Antoine Koch (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild) and Pascal Bidégorry (Spindrift racing).

Past alumni of the solo round the world Vendée Globe include double winner Desjoyeaux, Eliès, Josse, Thompson and Coville.

Crew line up for the MOD70 European Tour:

• Race For Water: Steve Ravussin (SUI), Yvan Ravussin (SUI), Franck Cammas (FRA), Thomas Coville (FRA), François Morvan (FRA), Loïc Forestier (SUI), Tanguy Cariou (FRA), Nicolas Heintz (FRA), Gurvan Bontemps (FRA), Benoît Lequin (FRA)
• FONCIA: Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA), Antoine Carraz (FRA), Thierry Chabagny (FRA), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), Emmanuel Leborgne (FRA), Xavier Revil (FRA), Alban Rosselin (FRA), Nicolas Texier (FRA), Julien FALXA (FRA)
• Groupe Edmond de Rothschild: Sébastien Josse (FRA), David Boileau (FRA), Florent Chastel (FRA), Cyril Dardashti (FRA), Olivier Douillard (FRA), Christophe Espagnon (FRA), Antoine Koch (FRA), Thomas Rouxel (FRA)
• Spindrift racing: Yann Guichard (FRA), Léo Lucet (FRA), Pascal Bidégorry (FRA) Jacques Guichard (FRA), Jean-Baptiste Levaillant (FRA), Yann Eliès (FRA), Kevin Escoffier (FRA), Devan Le Bihan (FRA)
• Musandam-Oman Sail: Sidney Gavignet (FRA), Fahad Al Hasni (OMA), Mohsin Al Busaidi (OMA), Khamis Al Amburi (OMA), Brian Thompson (GBR), Jean-François Cuzon (FRA), Thomas Le Breton (FRA), Michi Mueller (GER)

Friday 31st August, all times local
1438hrs Start Race 1
1545hrs Start Race 2
1715hrs Start Race 3

Saturday 1st September
1430hrs Start Race 4
1545hrs Start Race 5
1715hrs Start Race 6

Sunday 2nd September
1345hrs Parade of Sail
1430hrs Start of Offshore Leg 1 – inshore sailing of approx 1 hour before leaving Fjord.

Programme MOD70 European Tour

KIEL, Germany
31 August: Betfair City Race and/or Betfair Speed Race
1st September: Kiel City Race and/or Kiel Speed Race
2nd September. 1st stage starts Kiel-Dun Laoghaire, Dublin (1,238 miles)

DUN LAOGHAIRE, Ireland
7 September: Dùn Laoghaire City Race and/or DùnLaoghaire Speed Race
8 September: Dùn Laoghaire City Race and/or DùnLaoghaire Speed Race
9 September: 2nd Stage Dublin-Cascais (1,215 miles)

CASCAIS, Portugal
14 September: Cascais City Race and/or Cascais SpeedRace
15 September: Cascais City Race and/or Cascais SpeedRace
16 September: Cascais City Race and/or Cascais SpeedRace
17 September: 3rd Stage 'Round Portugal' (558 miles via Porto and Cape Saint-Vincent)
19 September: 4th Stage Cascais-Marseille (1,071 miles)

MARSEILLE, France
28 September: Marseille City Race and/or Marseille Speed Race
29 September: Marseille City Race and/or Marseille Speed Race
30 September: 5th Stage Marseille-Genoa (672 miles via Minorca)

www.mod70-europeantour.com