Route des Princes - Arkema - Région Aquitaine win Multi50 class

by Sabina Mollart Rogerson on 1 Jul 2013 In the 2013 Route des Princes, crossing the line at 12hrs 44mins 24secs UTC (14hrs 44mins 24secs local time Morlaix), FenêtréA-Cardinal skippered by Erwan Le Roux won the fourth and final leg, Plymouth to Morlaix Bay, for the Multi 50 class of the Route des Princes multihull race around Europe.

But victory in the last offshore leg was not enough to win the new multihull race around Europe overall.

FenêtréA-Cardinal finish runners up to the newest Multi50 in the fleet Arkéma - Aquitaine Region which was only launched in March 2013 and was designed by Romaric Neyhousser.

Crossing second, just eight minutes and 38 seconds after the leg winner, Arkéma - Aquitaine Region skippered by Lalou Roucayrol, triumph overall in the Multi50 class on the Route des Princes.

Arkéma - Aquitaine Region won the first leg into Lisbon, finished third into Dún Laoghaire, second into Plymouth and second into Morlaix. And at three of the four bonus points opportunities it was Roucayrol’s team which pocketed the points.

The Multi 50’s only raced for points on the offshore legs linking Valencia to Lisbon, Plymouth, Dún Laoghaire Dublin, Plymouth finishing today in Morlaix.

The elapsed time for the FenêtréA-Cardinal on the final theoretical course of 205 miles which started yesterday evening in Plymouth was 17hours 44minutes and 24 seconds. Arkéma - Aquitaine Region’s time was 17h 53mn 2sec

Arkéma - Aquitaine win the class overall on this inaugural edition of the race by 2.5pts.

Multi 50

Leg 4 Plymouth to Morlaix
1 FenêtréA-Cardinal (Erwan Le Roux) finished 12H 53MN 02 S UTC
2 Arkéma - Aquitaine Region (Lalou Roucayrol) + 8 mins 38 secs
3 Actual (Yves Le Blevec) + 35 mins 6 secs

Multi 50 Overall
1-Arkema-Région Aquitaine 140,5 pts
2-FenêtréA-Cardinal, Erwan Le Roux, 138 pts
3-Actual, Yves le Blevec, 138 pts
4- Rennes Métropole – Saint-Malo Agglomération, 105 pts

Lalou Roucayrol, FRA, Arkéma - Aquitaine Region: 'We had a great run under gennaker between Eddystone and Minquier and really it was fun making 17-18 knots in the fog. It was the best sailing by feel, it felt like we were flying and we really were flying. And that let us get up with everybody again after we got stuck a bit of the start line. We got into the race and got passed them one by one. We passed the Minquier buoy in the lead to get the 1.5pts and then got ourselves into light winds and a bit of sea and it was tough then, but we stalled as little then and Erwan Le Roux got through us into the lead. In fact there was no significant chance to get back at them after that. We decided to stay close to the coast but were fighting the current, tacking with the Code Zero at ten metres off the rocks. It was difficult.

But it is the first event for the boat and the first big win. In total it a great reward for the 17 months of building and 22,000 hours of work. We are absolutely delighted to win, we are on cloud nine really. At the start we felt like we were just going on a training race to learn the boat and so on and here we are winning it. We were not expecting this. This is the result of a lot of hard work by many people. It is really incredible.' Route des Princes