Mumm 30 class at Spi-Ouest Regatta, La Trinite, France

Gul Asterix wins the Mumm 30 class at Spi Ouest 2005 © François Van Malleghem

With the Mumm 30 Worlds in La Trinite in June, Spi Ouest regatta over the Easter weekend was always going to be an important event for testing local conditions and boat speed. With a very tough international fleet including European Champions Mean Machine, Key West winners Groovederci boasting Mumm 30 and Farr 40 world champion Hamish Pepper plus several top French teams we were aiming to use the event as chance to work on speed and boat handling.

After an extensive winter refit carried out by Pete Cumming of Liquid Logistix, the newly branded “Gul” Asterix Mumm 30 team were keen to test them selves against some of the top Mumms 30’s in the world.

Friday started with a perfect 12-15kts and slight chop, after a poor start we were more than happy to discover that we were pretty quick, quick enough to sail through the fleet to finish 2nd. Race 2 after a better start we arrived at the 1st mark in the lead, a slight misjudgement of the layline and we were left spinning dropping to about 12th. With good tactics from Olympic medallist Chris Draper and more excellent speed we were again able to sail threw the fleet to record another 2nd. With conditions remaining the same for the third race confidence was growing, another poor start saw another great recovery to finish 4th, ending the day only 1pt behind the very strong Groovederci team.

Saturday proved to be a bit of a wash out with no wind and thick fog, we did however manage to improve our Top Trump skills. Sunday followed a similar pattern although we did get one race in a 3-6kt breeze finishing fourth to maintain our 2nd position.

Monday was a lot more promising with the breeze back to 12-16kts and flat water. After a good start we were enjoying a very good race with Mean Machine also on Quantum sails until the last leeward mark where we managed to get tangled up with the middle of the First Class 8 fleet, with enough of a lead over 3rd place we elected to do another 720 rather than take it to protest. With the Americans scoring a Z flag penalty on top of a 5th we were in a strong position with one race left.

Another good start put us in another great race with Mean Machine with the two Quantum powered boats again opening up a big lead on the rest of the fleet we were able to concentrate on our own private race finishing less than 2 feet apart after 1.5hrs of racing. Unfortunately for Mean Machine their start was a little too good and they scored an OCS. With the Americans only managing a 6th we were able to win the class discarding a 4th.

This was the first international event for Asterix and her new Fusion M sails and winning is a big bonus, we always seemed to have a speed edge. With the same crew for the Worlds it is great to know we are on the pace.

My thanks go to Louis Browne for organising the campaign and choosing to use Quantum, also to the rest of the crew, Chris Draper (tactics), Dave Evans (helm), Pete Cummings (Jib trim), Vicky Lenz (Spi Trim), Louis (Pit) and Matt Kelly (Bow).

Thanks must also go to “Gul” for supplying our technical sailing clothing and “Joules” for supplying our shore side clothing.

Overall Results: