Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Le J’s Enjoy SPI Ouest France

J/80 sailboat- sailing Spi Ouest France Intermarche (La Trinite sur Mer, France)- The first day began with fifteen knots of southwest breezes, in a rainy, drizzly cloudy day, but the sun and the wind soon arrived in Quiberon Bay— it had to be Easter Bunny magic! "Exceptional sailing conditions allowed virtually all fleets to have 2-3 races,” commented Anthony Marchand (a famous French offshore sailor). “You could not ask for more!”  The weather could not have turned out better for the 37th SPI Ouest France Intermarche Regatta over the four day Easter holiday weekend.  Many of the large one-design classes (like the J/70s and J/80s) managed to get in eleven races!

Sailing from April 2nd to 5th, the races on Quiberon Bay went off like clockwork.  It was welcomed by all J sailors in all classes, ranging from the one-designs to the IRC and OH Class boats.

J/70s sailing SPI Ouest France Intermarche regattaThis year’s J/70 fleet had a strong international contingent and their experience in J/70 regattas around the world reflected in their ability to sail fast, consistently and recover quickly if there were any tactical/ strategic hiccups.  As anticipated, there were certainly going to be some tough match-ups during the regatta; perhaps the most interesting duel was between the United Kingdom’s Ian Atkins driving BOATS.COM (UK National Champion) and multiple World Champion Hugo Rocha from Spain sailing NEW TERRITORIES.  Atkins opened the series with an impressive five 1sts in the first seven races.  However, Rocha’s team started to figure out the boat and the course and they, in turn, closed with four bullets in the last four races!  In the end, BOATS.COM was declared champion by a mere 3 pts, with 21 pts to Rocha’s 23 pts.

The battle for the top five, or even the top ten, was remarkably close after sailing 11 races and counting 10.  The top French team was Le Havre’s Ludovic Senechal sailing LULU NANTAISE, sailing a very solid, steady series of races to only toss a 6th in his first race to take the bronze.  The balance of the top five were Laureano’s PETIT PALACE HOTELS from Spain in 4th and Oliver Lundqvists’s Swedish team on THE PURE CIRCLE taking 5th.

J/80 sailboats- sailing SPI Ouest France IntermarcheThe 72-boat J/80 class saw many top teams continue their hegemony over the top spots in the standings. Nevertheless, after 11 races, the top six teams were only separated by 26 pts- one more bad race could easily have erased anyone’s hope of a great finish with such a large, aggressive fleet.  Sailing a very consistent series and keeping themselves out of trouble was the VOILERIE ALL PURPOSE team skippered by Sylvain Pellissier, winning twice, taking a 2nd in two and sailing most races in the top ten to finish with just 40 pts.  One of Pellisier’s friendly competitors that wouldn’t “let him off the hook” was past multiple J/80 Champion Eric Brezellec; they took chase on COURRIER JUNIOR and finished just 7 pts back with 47 pts total despite having to drop a BFD in his scoreline.  Perhaps the surprise of the regatta was the excellent performance by a “new face in the crowd”, H. Abeguile’s APCC EQUIPE JEUNE, not only winning the first race of the regatta but winning the last one, too!  Their “train wreck” of a scoreline in races 8-9-10 (a DSQ, 15th, 11th) weren’t enough to drop him off the podium, earning a 3rd place overall by a whisker.

J/80 sailing video- SPI Ouest FranceThe rest of the top five included Michel Riou’s POLE ESPOIR COTES D’ARMOR in 4th followed by Matthieu Salomon’s consistently well-sailed CHARIOT PLUS- VANNES UTILITAIRES in 5th.  Top women’s skipper was Maxime Rousseaux’s CN ST CAST GRAND OUEST in 6th followed by LE HAVRE- LADIES NORMANDIE skippered by Sophie Riot in 22nd.   Sailing videos of the J/80 fleet here.

In the IRC handicap-racing world, there were J’s sailing in virtually every class.  Starting with IRC 1, two J/122s sailed in the 19-boat fleet, including INNOVATIONS BLEUES (P. Roynette) in 9th place and JOLLY JOKER (R Marchais) in 10th place.

IRC 2 class had an eclectic mix of 35-40 footers.  And, to the amazement of the local betting parlors, it was the exquisitely maintained J/120 RHAPSODIE V sailed by JJ. Godet that garnered a bronze on the podium; in fact winning the last race of the regatta and nearly pulling off a silver!

IRC 4 class was so large it was split into an “A” and “B” grouping.  Sailing in IRC 4-A were twin duos of J/97s and J/92s’s.  The J/97 HALIOTIS (P. Mabo) managed a 15th place while the J/92S’s DR JEKYLL (T. Bidon) sailed into 13th and SABOT (M. Demazure) took 20th.

Sailing the seventeen boat OH-1 Class for the first time was the J/88 J-LANCE 11 skippered by Didier Le Moal from S.R. Rochelaises.  They had a very strong competition all weekend long.  In the end, it was the J/111 J4F (Pierre Guennal with Nicolas Troussel, twice winner of the Solitaire du Figaro) that got J/Class honors, taking 2nd overall by just one point!  They were followed by the J/92s KINETIK (Jm. Loirat) in 4th, then the J/88 J-LANCE 11 in 5th.  The J/109 CNP1 J’VOLE helmed by P. Barouch slid into 8th overall, followed by the J/105 MISS J (F. Guillemot) in 12th.

The OH-2 Class also had 17 boats participating and the quartet of classic J/24s put on a good showing for a 35 year old boat design- with one getting silverware!  Taking 3rd overall was INSULARIS (A. Garcia), followed by JINETTE (C. Gury) in 6th place, HORS’J (L. Madeline) in 8th place and EL NINO (B. Le Marec) closing with 13th place.   For more SPI OUEST France Intermarche sailing information