(Camaret, France)- At Camaret, the J/80 Class has always been very loyal
to the Grand Prix Ecole Navale France Championship Monotype habitable.
Camaret even organized the J/80 2006 European Championship. It is this
year, again, the largest class at GPEN are the J/80s; with 58 boats it
also marked a participation record for the event. While starting off
very slowly on the first day of racing, it was Martin Bertrand’s CHARLY
Team (Xavier Lara, Thomas Haddouche, Julien Lebru, and Amelie Grassi)
that closed with a flourish of top five finishes to win by 9 pts.For the first day of racing on the harbor waters of Brest, it was anything but easy for many of the top teams. The sailing conditions were ideal (8-9 knots in the morning, 12 kts in the afternoon from the WNW with a strong current and sun!). It allowed the Race Committee, chaired by Alexandre BOUCHARD, to launch three races, including two starts under the terrible black rule. Overall, no crew really dominated for the day, the differences were small and the standings changed dramatically virtually every race.
The overall standings after 3 races were PIERRE OCEANE (Herve Leduc) in first, followed by GAN’JA (Luc Nadal) and COURIER JUNIOR (Eric Brezellec) in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Like
the day before, the J/80 teams started their first race a little before
11:00 am. The Race Committee was able to launch four races in ideal
conditions: 8-16 kts of WNW breezes oscillating somewhat evenly and,
again, with lots of sun! The general recalls resulted in black flags,
including the last race that was fatal for many teams. Because of the
adverse current on the line, about fifteen boats were BFD.The overall standings changed dramatically after the first day. At this point, CHARLY leapt into first overall, followed by PIERRE OCEANE in 2nd and Brezellec’s team hanging onto 3rd. Crashing hard and fast down the standings after two BFD’s was Nadal’s GAN’JA. The most startling advancement up the standings in this game of “snakes & ladders” was ECOLE NAVALE sailed by Frederic Hauville, posting two bullets in the last two races to climb into 4th overall!
For the final day, the RC got the fleet out early for a 0930 hrs start. However, light winds were the enemy of all good planning and efforts. Unfortunately, the Race Committee was unable to launch races because the weather conditions were too light: 2-4 knots of wind oscillating between 300 and 350 with lots of current, bright sun, and perfectly smooth water! As a result, the RC sent the fleet home just before noontime.
The title of “Champion of France Monotype habitable” was awarded to the young Rochelais crew of CHARLY sailed by Martin Bertrand. "This is our first victory in J/80 and only our second competition on this level after the Spi Ouest France Intermarché. We are a young crew (average 23 years) from the 470 class. Our goal this year is the World Championship in Kiel early July. This is a bay that we know well as we often sailed 470s there. We look forward in any case to the Championship of France organized here in GPEN; it was good preparation for the Worlds,“ commented Bertrand.
The runner-up was PIERRE OCEAN skippered by Herve Leduc and his team of Loic Avram, Etienne Luenau, Alexandre Goyer and Nathalie Giloy. The crew of COURIER JUNIOR (Herve Corlay, Morgan Riou, Julie Richeux, Nicolas Richard) steered by Eric Brezellec completed the podium. Fourth went to ECOLE NAVALE, notable for Hauville’s incredible comeback feat on Saturday. Fifth was APCC EQUIPE JEUNNE helmed by Hugo Abeguile.
A big thank you for the excellent organization of this event, especially Alain DAOULAS (and teams), Nautical Commissioner of the race, Alexandre BOUCHARD (and his team), Chairman of the Race Committee, for its professionalism, and the city of Camaret (and volunteers) for the fantastic welcome.
Of the nine women skippers in the event (nearly 10% of the boats), the top two women’s teams finished in the top ten! They were Maxime Rousseaux on CN ST CAST/ GRAND OUEST ETIQUETTES in 7th place (notably posting a 5-2-1 scoreline in the middle of the series!) and Maxime Mesnil’s CO-PILOTES in 10th place. Sailing photo credits- Pierrick Contin For more Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale sailing information
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