Franck and Adam together on board Norauto for GC32 Racing Tour finale

by Norauto Press on 13 Oct 2016 With over 40 knots of westerly wind on the Rad Sud in Marseille today, sailing is out of the question and races are cancelled for the first day of the Marseille One Design, the final stage of the 2016 GC32 Racing Tour. Conditions are forecast to be windy for Friday and then lighter over the weekend. The team will need nerves of steel! The Norauto crew have the championship title at stake in Marseille. The Phoenician city is part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games bid. Following the first two events of the season on Lake Garda in May and June, Franck Cammas - who is from Aix - returns as helmsman on board the French foiling catamaran. in the meantime, the team has been skippered by Adam Minoprio who scored two victories in Spain. In the overall ranking, Norauto has a three points lead over the Sébastien Schneiter Swiss Team Tilt. As Franck Cammas explains, this commitment to the GC32 Racing Tour is an exciting aspect of the preparation of Groupama Team France (including Norauto as an official partner) for the America's Cup 2017 and the results achieved so far are really encouraging for the whole team.

Whilst Franck Cammas has not been racing on the GC32, he has clearly been spending most of his time on foiling catamarans: 'For Groupama Team France, our primary focus is to train for the America's Cup and therefore develop the new boat - Class AC Test - launched in July. We have been training since August in Lanvéoc (Brest harbour) where the water is suitable. We spend our weeks there, alternating time spent on sailing and on technical development. We have also been sailing recently on the two preliminary rounds of the AC World Series in Portsmouth and Toulon,” explains Cammas.

'It's very nice to sail on this GC32 Racing Tour. The boats are smaller than on the Cup, more responsive and agile. And it's great to have ten boats on the starting line. There can be many lead changes and especially on a complex body of water like the one in Marseille. Tactically, the Marseille One Design looks to be really different from the two events I have sailed on Lake Garda” continues Franck.

This week, Norauto faces its main rival on the Tour: Team Tilt. Since the event in Sotogrande in September, the young skipper, Sébastien Schneiter has stepped in as helm for Arnaud Psarofaghis. 'Sébastien has worked well in Sotogrande and the Tilt crew has been training for several days in Marseille” continues Franck. 'In the lighter conditions this weekend the game will open up. Realteam, Malizia and Engie can do great things and the race area in Marseille is really complicated. Adam has done a great job in Spain. We want to win so we'll have to take one step at a time, one race after another.”

On the competition front, the GC32 circuit is also an opportunity for the Team France sailors to race in different crew configurations. 'We took the opportunity and have been regularly changing the crew throughout the season. Here in Marseille, there are further changes: Adam (Minoprio) will be on the mainsail, while Arnaud Jarlegan who has been in this role previously, replaces Matthew Vandame as headsail trimmer. Thomas Breton remains on tactics as does Devan le Bihan on bow. This is the crew configuration we have for the next AC World Series in Japan (18-20 November). With Adam, we communicate in English on board and the together with Thomas, the three of us have not had that much practice competing together so the competition in Marseille will be good for that too.”

Overall ranking of the 2016 GC32 Racing Tour after four events:
1 - Norauto (FRA) F.Cammas - 5 points
2 - Team TILT (SUI) S.Schneiter - 8 points
3 - Armin Strom Sailing Team (SUI) F.Marazzi - 15 points
4 - Malizia - YC Monaco (MON) P.Casiraghi - 23 points
5 - Gunvor Sailing (SWE) G.Petterson - 24 point
6 - Team Engie (FRA) S.Rogues - 24 point
7 - Argo (USA) J.Carroll - 24 point
8 - Mamma Aiuto! (JPN) N.Kamei - 30 points
9 - Realteam (SUI) J.Clerc - 31 points
10 - Spindrift racing (FRA) Y.Guichard - 36 points
11 - Orange Racing (NER) Laurent Lenne - 37 points