Prysmian Group secures 10th place in Rolex Fastnet Race
by Giancarlo Pedote 6 Aug 2019 14:38 BST
Imoca Prysmian - Giancarlo Pedote © Francois Van Malleghem
On Monday at 16:46 GMT, Giancarlo Pedote and Anthony Marchand crossed the finish line in the 48th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race.
The duo on Prysmian Group, who took two days and five hours to devour the 608-mile course between Cowes and Plymouth via the legendary Fastnet lighthouse, finally secured 10th place in the IMOCA category after a race where the end result was essentially decided on the first night.
It was a night that saw the fleet having to negotiate an important transition phase along the southern coast of England, where the crew had to extract themselves as best they could from the extensive light patch. In this regard, the duo were unfortunately not rewarded for their offshore option and promptly lamented a deficit of around fifteen miles in relation to the leaders.
However, they went on to really get the best out of their steed on a reach in bracing conditions as they dropped down from Land's End to the famous Fastnet Rock in the Irish Sea. Absolutely nailing their trajectory, they managed to claw back several places before giving the 9th place back to the Amedeo - Éric Péron pairing in the closing metres to finish just nine minutes astern of them.
"I'm happy because this race was a fantastic experience. I've learnt a great deal about the boat and Anthony and I worked well together. It's enabled us to raise our game and continue to get our bearings together with a view to the Transat Jacques Vabre. We got off to a great start, but we hit hard times and didn't have much luck on our side. We were kind of the boat that signalled to the others where there wasn't really much breeze. We need to look at the respective courses to assess all that once things have cooled down. We're satisfied with how the rest of it went. We're happy with the way we manoeuvred and with our pairing. We got on well and we've seen that we can only build upwards from here", indicated the Italian sailor, who immediately set off on the delivery trip back to Lorient, which he's set to reach over the course of tonight.