Sea, Sail & Surf news
Photo : JM.LiotTour de France à la Voile
Jimmy Pahun snatches victory and the red spinnaker again
Force EDC in third at Bayonne
mardi 16 juillet 2002 –
It only took 17 hours at an average speed of 10 knots for the fleet to cover the 165 miles between La Rochelle and Bayonne.
The boats started downwind with the masthead spinnaker and then as the wind shifted to the northwest, it was reaching with the fractional kite up.
By winning this grade 3 coefficient race, Jimmy Pahun and his crew of single-handed experienced sailors, such as Isabelle Autissier and Pascal Bidégorry, get the overall leader’s red spinnaker back.
Pascal Bidégorry, who jumped on the boat again in La Rochelle after having participated in the multihullls grand prix onboard Groupama, was most happy to win in his home town : "It’s fantastic ! I haven’t sailed here for two or three years.
It’s great to come back and win the race. There was a great atmosphere onboard. Everyone worked hard to come back in the race and get good speed. Nantes-St-Nazaire made a slight mistake towards the end and we managed to pass them".
Pierre Loïc Berthet’s Nantes St-Nazaire came home in second position and therefore remain second overall while former overall leader Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention, skippered by Etienne David, finished in 7th position and drop to third place overall.
Pierre-Loïc Berthet, skipper of Nantes-St-Nazaire commented on their result : "We have good fun downwind with 25 knots of wind. We were sailing between 10 and 15 knots on the rhumline unlike the former long upwind races. We still don’t know how Jimmy Pahun passed us. We hadn’t seen him all day and passed us 10 miles before the finish. Well done to them !"
Force EDC in third
Australia’s Simon Sutherland and his student team on board Force EDC had a very good performance as they came in third after having lead for a third of the race : "We had a pretty good start and rounded the top mark in second and had a good run down to the first gate a little bit in front. We worked really hard on the way down. We broke two winches. Towards the end we lost a couple of boats as it went lighter. We struggle to stay on course. We decided to get the headsail up towards the finish and that helped us to gain a place", commented the Aussie skipper. "It was great fun. The guys really enjoyed it. It was a change from all the upwind stuff that we have had so far", added the skipper of Force EDC.
Panther Team GBR finished in tenth after a constantly changing race. Duncan Mac Donald, main sail trimmer, commented the race : "It was an extremely quick race. All downwind and it was sunny, which was nice. We had a good first beat but then we lost lots places on the run. We don’t know why, we had no speed and we went the wrong way on the shifts. Well done to the people who did well".
Isabelle Musy
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