It was an exceptional first day of racing for the fourth edition of Deauville International Week.
The crews benefited from perfect weather conditions for hostilities to commence, though the highly tactical race zone did cause a few difficulties… 'There was current, a lot of current! As a result the windward mark proved to be a complete disaster!' according to Fabien Delahaye, tactician aboard the Farr 30 Manche Basse-Normandie.
Nicolas Doré, trimmer aboard the Farr 30 Courrier Dunkerque, echoes this sentiment: 'It was surprising! We aren’t used to facing so much current. Other than that conditions were great!'
In contrast to the local sailors, Vincent Biarnes, a native of Brittany in NW France didn’t find conditions too much of a shock: 'For my part I come from the Côtes d’Armor region so I’m not afraid of the current anymore!'
As is usually the case during Deauville International Week, glorious sunshine coloured today’s racing. As regards the anemometer, the light wind at the start of the afternoon gradually asserted itself as the day went on, finally reaching 20 knots. These ideal conditions enabled the race committees to validate four races for the Farr 30 and IRC, with three races for the Sportsboat round.
The overall performances in the Farr 30 class couldn’t really be described as consistent. Each race had its fair share of surprises and as such it is hard to put a name to the current leaders. Despite this, Daniel Souben and his crew came off well as they were regularly up in the top spots throughout the day. Behind them though, the ranking is rather a squeeze to say the least! Eight boats are within a point of each other and tomorrow will doubtless enable certain competitors to open up a lead.
There was one particular incident of note today. A collision between Elcimaï and Nouvelle Calédonie cost them second and third place respectively in the provisional general ranking.
Conditions proved very feisty for the Longtze and K6.50 today. The chop in the Baie de Seine is uncompromising with these race boats, which have broken a number of speed records.
'Conditions were fairly hard for us, harder than usual. It was physical but the race zone is fantastic, which helps!' said an enthusiastic Erwan Tabarly, skipper of the Longtze Athema.
'You really have to stay on the pace. If you ease off you immediately pay the price but close-hauled we’re not bad and under spinnaker you can rack up some crazy surfs! It’s a sheer delight' admits Marin Clausin, skipper of the K6.50 Kalvados.
Tomorrow another fine day awaits the racers and there’s a strong chance that the forecast conditions will upset the hierarchies…
by Kate Jennings - Expression
12:20 AM Fri 5 Jun 2009 GMT
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