Normandy Challenge Race announced

by Kate Jennings - Expression on 25 Feb 2010
The year 2010 will see the creation in Normandy of an ambitious new offshore racing event, setting out from and returning to the French town of Caen.

Sirius Evénements, with the full backing of the institutional and sporting environment, is launching the first edition of the Normandy Challenge Race from 13th to 23rd May 2010. The start of this 1,000 mile double-handed race on Sunday 16th May will take the skippers around the coasts of Normandy, England, Ireland and Brittany.

A Booming Class

Today the Class 40 is one of the fastest developing international offshore racing categories and already boasts nearly a hundred craft. Initially devised to enable amateur skippers to gain access to offshore racing, it is attracting an increasing number of professional skippers.

Midway between the Figaro Beneteau and the 60 footers of the Vendée Globe, the series is progressively building up its programme and the transatlantic launched in 2009 – the Solidaire du Chocolat – proved extremely successful both in sporting and media terms. The 40 foot monohulls, (12.20 m) which form the Class 40, enable a versatile programme with a dual oceanic and coastal vocation.

A Highly demanding and selective course

This highly demanding course through some complicated navigation zones will give free rein to any number of tactical games at what is sure to be a very fast pace. Indeed the course spans some magnificent sea areas and an extremely varied course, half of which is raced in coastal zones whilst the other half is offshore in the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea.

Further challenges come with the marks which have to be rounded off the Isle of Wight, the Irish lighthouses of Tuskar Rock and the more famous Fastnet Rock, the Anglo-Norman islands of Raz Blanchard and the Pointe de Barfleur, among others.

Race Management will be provided by Sylvie Viant, race director for all the big races for countless years, including the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum and Jacques Vabre.

AN International Event

Due to its positioning, the race is particularly aimed at French crews from the channel, those from the Atlantic basin lured by adventure, as well as British, Belgian, Dutch and also German crews.

Indeed around fifteen Class 40s regularly sail in British waters, the majority of which are based in the Solent, just a few hours sailing from Normandy. As a result the event is intended to gather together all these protagonists in the same nautical basin.

Finally with the course split between French, English and Irish waters, the majority of the route is reminiscent of the course taken in the famous Fastnet Race.

A 10-year event programme in Caen

With the Class 40 setting themselves up in the Bassin Saint-Pierre in Caen’s town centre, everything will be within close proximity: from the installation of a marquee village along the quay from Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th May, to an impressive programme of entertainment, a seaborne prologue on Saturday 15th May, an official soirée that same day, a procession along the Canal de Caen to the sea prior to the start on Sunday 16th May and the prize-giving in Caen on Sunday 23rd May.

The website, with satellite positioning of the boats, will enable spectators to closely track the race and daily radio link-ups will be organised with the skippers.

A new event to unite nautical energies

Normandy already accommodates an active fleet of Class 40s with its skippers participating in many of the big races. These include Marc Lepesqueux, who sports the colours of the Agglomération Caen la Mer, and Tanguy de Lamotte, recent winner of La Solidaire du Chocolat, whose sponsor Karver Systems is based in Honfleur. Additional Class 40s are also based in nearby Cherbourg and Dieppe.

Furthermore, the Caen based V1D2 yard, managed by Marc Lefebvre, has built up a reputation over the past few years in the preparation of 40 and 60 foot racing boats.

The great institutional protagonists have been brought in to support the project: the Town of Caen, the Lower-Normandy Region, the Calvados District and the Caen la Mer Agglomeration; as well as protagonists from the nautical network on a sporting and economic level: Société des Régates de Caen-Ouistreham (SRCO – Caen-Ouistreham Racing Society), Ligue Basse-Normandie de la FFVoile (Lower Normandy League of the French Sailing Federation), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Caen and the federation of professionals from Lower Normandy concerned with F2N watersports.