2013 Vulcain Trophy - Excellent result for Realstone crew

by MaxComm Communication on 24 Sep 2013 At the seventh event of the Vulcain Trophy, hosted by the Geneva Yacht Club last weekend, Jerome Clerc and the Realteam Decision 35 crew raced six races winning two of them to post a third place overall behind Ladycat and Alinghi.

This excellent result puts the team in second place overall on the season ranking behind Alinghi who, with one event to go at the Grand Prix du Beau-Rivage Palace, has won the 2013 Vulcain Trophy already.

'We are delighted with our weekend: we sailed well and consistently and the team spirit was excellent,' said Denis Girardet, tactician onboard. The top three boats have moved ahead on points from the rest of the fleet with only five points between Realstone and Ladycat, who won the last event, and nine separating third from fourth. 'We have been neck and neck with Alinghi all season! We were of course hoping to beat them overall for the Vulcain Trophy, but we can only congratulate them for winning and for their superb performance this year!'

The race committee managed to get six races off in a light five to eight knot breeze on Saturday, racing was tactically challenging: 'These light conditions were mentally very tiring,' said the tactician. 'And we had the additional challenge of a torn gennaker which we broke during the penultimate race of the day and which handicapped us heavily for the last race. We would have loved to race again on Sunday for more points towards the general ranking, but the light and shifty conditions made it impossible for the race committee to run a race.'

Realteam hopes to finish the season on a high next weekend at the Grand Prix Beau-Rivage Palace: 'Above all we want to defend our second place in the overall season ranking,' said skipper Jerome Clerc. 'If we can win the last Grand Prix of the season, well that would be even better!'

The team will train all week towards the Grand Prix Beau-Rivage Palace, final event of the Vulcain Trophy that takes place from the 27-29 September in Lausanne.

Realteam crew
Jerome Clerc, helmsman
Denis Girardet, tactician
Nils Palmieri, mainsail trimmer
Cedric Schmidt, trimmer
Thierry Wasem, floater
Bryan Mettraux, bowman

Grand Prix Grange & Cie ranking
Ladycat Powered by Spindrift racing 10
Alinghi 12
Realstone Sailing 15
Okalys-Corum 24
Zen Too 24
Tilt 25
Nickel 30
Veltigroup 30
Team SUI9 32
Ylliam-Comptoir Immobilier 46
Oryx 52

Vulcain Trophy – season ranking
Alinghi 9
Realstone Sailing 18
Zen Too 21
Ladycat powered by Spindrift racing 25
Okalys-Corum 26
Team SUI9 33
Tilt 40
Nickel 43
Veltigroup 44
Ylliam-Comptoir immobilier 45
Oryx 57

Coming up:
27-29 September: Grand Prix Beau-Rivage Palace – Vulcain Trophy, Switzerland
3-6 October: Act 7 Extreme Sailing Series – Nice, France
14-17 November: Act 8 Extreme Sailing Series – Rio de Janeiro, Brasil