(La Trinite sur Mer, France)- The largest one-design fleet in the history of SPI Ouest-France delivered in spades. Great competition, good sailing and a champion whom is greatly respected in French sailing circles. Eric Brezellec, from Saint-Quay Portrieux, residing in Brest, was the overall J/80 class winner. With his crew, he won his second brilliant Spi Ouest France.
Eric has won four J/80 Cups in France (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2010). "This morning, I have no aches because we did not have severe weather conditions. For cons, I'm tired mentally because it's not easy for nerves to function in a split-fleet of 100 J/80s (the fleet was split into two flights). It is the happiness of winning for the second time this great race of the season that brings great pleasure", said Eric.
"I
sailed in the J/80 since 2004. Our victory is linked to a good analysis
of the water but also to our knowledge of J/80. We know how it works
and we have a great set of sails. And, we are used to sailing in large
J/80 fleets. In the J/80 Coupe de France, we regularly sail 60 boats on
the starting line. We are not surprised at the mark roundings, they can
be jammed!" Eric plans on sailing the J/80 World Championships in
Copenhagen, Denmark in July 3-8. While Eric sailed his INTERFACE CONCEPT 2 to a 3-4-2-1-5-6-3 record for races counted, Sylvain Pellisier on VOILERIE ALL PURPOSE sailed a series of very consistent races to start out slowly and make a strong bid to win the regatta, getting an 8-8-3-3-3-1-11-6. Had it not been for a bad race #7, Pellisier may have won the regatta. Third was Maxime Roussea on GRAND OUEST ETIQUETTES perhaps sailing the strongest regatta of the entire top three finishers. Maxime was leading the regatta for the first six races, getting a 3-2-1-3-7-1. But disastrous last two races of 19-46 simply dropped them off the top of the podium, having to drop a 46th just to finish 3rd overall.
Of
note, Bruno Trouble's team on COYOTE finished 12th overall, with
Phillipe Girardin, Patrice Roynette and Gilles Fournier as crew. They
firmly established primal, senior, supremacy by winning their first
race! Nevertheless, they sailed well to get a 1-6-8-10-9-19-20-41.
Their finishes for the first five races put them in the top five but an
unfortunate last three races dropped them off the top ten. Also,
Christine Briand (famous naval architect's Phillipe Briand's wife)
sailed a great series to finish 6th sailing her J/80 J'ILE DE RE to a
good record of 13-3-4-2-5-5-15-45. Past top 3 finisher Luc Nadal on
GAN'JA was 8th. Laura Vroon's team from the Netherlands, JOIE DE VIVRE,
finished 18th, winning a race, too! And, top Italian team was Massimo
Rama's team on JENIALE finishing 23rd. As for the J/97, Didier Le Moal's team on J-LANCE won with a 1-1-2-2-1-1-1 to simply dominate their class, the largest IRC class at SPI-Ouest-France with over forty boats. In the J/22 class, Huet's EUROPEAN HOMES managed to squeeze out a victory with a 1-2-4-4-2-3-2-1. Pouteau's SOFFE was second and Raphalen's BANQUE POPULAIRE ATLANTIQUE was third. Sailing photo credits: Eric Rousseau - VELOX IMAGES http://bit.ly/9zQYbc, Laurent Vidal - PHOTOMER http://bit.ly/avmMWw For more Spi Ouest-France sailing information