(Cameret-sur-Mer, Brittany, France)- Grand Prix L’Ecole Navale (GPEN) returns for another magnificent Edition XII, during the Ascension weekend, from Thursday May 29th to Sunday June 1st 2014. The primary host, l’École Navale (French Naval Academy) are conducting the races on three sites- the bay of Crozon-Morgat, the bay of Camaret and le port du Château in Brest (Brest marina). The J/22s are hosting their European Championship and the J/80s are out in full force for the third stop of their Coupe de France season long championship. Ready to compete on three exceptional sites and coming from a dozen countries of the European Union are more than 600 crew.
In the J/22 Europeans, there is a mix of French (14), German (3) and Netherlands (3) participating in the twenty boat class, a great turnout for J/22s on the continent! Amongst the notable French teams are Bernard Andre on MAJIC, Patrick Huet on EUROPEAN HOMES, Ludovic Senechal on LULU LA NANTAISE and Charles Michaux on JAZZY. Taking up the challenge in their home waters are top German teams like Bernhard Kleinefeld’s CAMPAGNOLO, Thomas Loesch’s JOULOU 3 and Christian Rieckborn’s JOLLY JUMPER. Netherlands teams hoping to make a trip to the podium include Michiel Eijsink’s RANGER, Jelle Nijhuis’s HISTOS JR and Peter van Doornmalen’s GAP. With such an excellent cross-section of continental European J/22 teams, it will be interesting to see which teams have benefitted from their spring training sessions and which ones are still in “catch-up” mode. For more Grand Prix L’Ecole Navale (GPEN) sailing information