Normandy Sailing Week 2011 Stage one opened by M34s

by Kate Jennings translation on 11 Jun 2011 Normandy Sailing Week 2011 sixth edition is currently underway in Le Havre. The event started today Friday 10th June and continues until 13th June.

After a skippers’ briefing at 12 noon, the 11 M34s competing in this first stage of the French Crewed Offshore Racing Championship left the pontoons to head out to the race zone situated off Le Havre. At 1430 hours, after a general recall, the fleet set off. Over the course of the day, the sunshine chased away the rain and the 10/12 knots of established breeze in the early afternoon eventually dropped away. This resulted in some mild conditions, which enabled two races to be run, making a great opener for the 2011 edition of Normandy Sailing Week!

Two races, two bullets!
Aboard Courrier Dunkerque, Pierre-Antoine Morvan and his crew were ‘on fire’ from the off. For this first day of racing, the sailors from northern France earned themselves two bullets. The complicated weather conditions constantly reshuffled the cards today. For Pierre-Loïc Berthet, tactician aboard Courrier Dunkerque, it was a tactically challenging day: 'It was a great day, stormy at the start. The conditions were very shifty, with the wind frequently switching direction in the wind squalls. During the second race, the skies cleared but the weather system caused a fair amount of disruption among the various race strategies.'

The Omani team from BAE Systems also played their game well today. Skipper, Cédric Pouligny, admitted that he was satisfied with their performance: 'We’re very happy. The crew change a great deal so it’s not easy to get into the rhythm, but we did manage to pull off some good moves. We failed to win the first race due to a silly mistake but we don’t have any regrets as the conditions were complicated and we came out of it alright'.

Though certain names are already standing out above the rest after two windward-leeward courses in light airs, it is hard to make any predictions. In the provisional general ranking this evening, the favourites aren’t all at the top of the leaderboard. Meantime, certain outsiders, like the German M34 Iskareen, have pulled off some fine performances. We’ll have to wait for some more regular conditions to really see what the crews are made of…

Everyone on the water tomorrow!
Tomorrow the 11 fleets will be on the water racing from noon onwards. The M34s will continue with some windward-leeward courses before they head offshore on a 100 mile epic on Sunday. The others classes, J80, First 7.5, Classe6.50, Longtze, Laser SB3, Seascape 18, IRC 1, 2, 3 and 4 will also be in on the action on Saturday. In the meantime, this evening will see the 110 crews enjoying a special reception organised in the port of Le Havre, where they’ll be able to relax a bit before tomorrow’s battles begins on the Norman race Normandy Sailing Week website