(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.
This
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.
The
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.
The
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
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