J/111 J-LANCE VIII Scores in IRC(Crouesty Arzon, France)- One of the classic late spring, early summer events on the French sailing calendar is the Grand Prix du Crouesty sailed in southern Brittany. It's traditionally been a very strong one-design regatta with additions of handicap fleets over the years. The GPEN is hosted by Yacht Club Crouesty Arzon and sponsored by the Yacht Club de France. The event is always sailed the weekend of Pentecost on the beautiful bay bordered by Presque'Ile Rhuys and the islands of Houat Hoedic called Mor Braz.
With over 130 boats and 600 sailors competing for three days literally just off the beaches and cliffs, the general public have an exceptional view of Petit Mont on the Bay of Mor Braz. And, with magnificent conditions blessing the fleet for most of the weekend, the sailors got in some fantastic sailing and some spirited competition.
Like
the first major J/80 event, this one also produced yet another "new kid
on the block" at the top of the fleet. After sailing eight races,
Quentin Ponroy's team on ELECTRA never finished out of the top five,
scoring three 1sts and three 3rds to win with 12 pts net, a clear 16 pt
margin of victory. Sailing nearly as smart and fast was Simon
Moriceau's INTERFACE CONCEPT, however, two "soon-to-be-forgotten"
finishes of 12-18 in races 6 & 7 damaged their efforts to finish
atop the podium, settling for second overall with 28 pts net. Third was
Nicolas Lunven on GENERALI, suffering a similar fate as Moriceau,
having to face a 17-13-13 score mid-series to otherwise enable them at
shot at the top, too. Fourth was Phillipe Guigene on FAIS TOI PLAISIR
MARINE LORIENT and fifth was the familiar team on Luc Nadal's GAN'JA.
In
the Monotype Division, the combination of J/22s, J/24s and J/70s made
for some interesting racing as the scoring was based on handicap. While
the J/70s were miles ahead crossing the line on elapsed times, they
could only wait until they got to the dock at the end of the day to know
how they performed on corrected. Nevertheless, the J/22s swept the
division based on handicap. More importantly, on a class-by-class basis
there were clear leaders as described below.For the J/22s, top dog was Patrick Huet's EUROPEAN HOMES sailing to nearly straight firsts amongst J/22s. Second was Charles Michaux's JAZZY and third was Claire Pouteau's SOFFE.
The
J/70s were led by Gerard Chapelot sailing ALBERTO sailing very
consistently. Second was Luc Lajoye's EXIUM and in third was Jean-Marc
Gosset's VOILERIE SAILS CONCEPT. In J/24s, the leader was Aorelian Garcia's INSULARIS followed by Charles Gury's JINETTE.
The IRC handicap division saw Didier Le Moal's J/111 J/LANCE VIII take third on the podium despite having a very slow start to finish with a 3-1-4-3 for 23 pts net. For more Grand Prix du Crouesty sailing information
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