Normandy Channel Race - Adieu Celtic Sea, hello Brittany!

by Kate Jennings on 30 May 2014 The 16 Class40s competing in the Normandy Channel Race are currently making for the Lizen Ven mark to the north of Ile Vierge off northern Brittany. Groupement Flo is continuing to hold off her pursuers, six of which are jockeying for position in her wake, all within a one-mile radius!

Wolf Rock lighthouse and its 4,300 tonnes of stone has once again seen a string of Class40s slinking by her door since 0900 GMT this morning. The long procession of boats is making good speed, particularly with the favourable current and wind set to accompany the boats through until 1400 GMT today, at which point they’ll begin punching tide again.

The sailors from Lower Normandy are still leading the Normandy Channel Race with Brieuc Maisonneuve and Rémi Aubrun blazing a trail on Groupement Flo. However, GDF Suez (Sébastien Rogues and Bertrand Castelnerac) are on the hunt again, clawing back the miles on their downwind sprint, which just happens to be the grey and yellow Class40’s favourite point of sail: 'We really had fun last night with Bertrand. We didn’t get much sleep, as we had to be ready to snap up all the wind shifts that came our way and the ensuing gybes. We’re happy we’ve managed to get past Campagne De France. Behind us, there’s an almighty battle between fourth and ninth place. It’s fantastic!'

Indeed, six boats are grouped together within a mile of each other astern of the top trio: Serenis Consulting, Team Work, L’Express – Trepia, ERDF – Des pieds et Des mains, Team Picoty – Lac de Vassivière and Le Conservateur appear to be stuck to each other like glue. 'This race is fabulous with all this bunching up of the fleet. It’s incredibly motivating to be in amongst it with everyone,' Bertrand Delesne (Team Work) enthused at the lunchtime radio session.

For the next stage in proceedings, the wind is set to switch round to the north-east from tomorrow. Shortly before Guernsey, the race is likely to start over again, dishing up a menu of close-hauled sailing, which is sure to reshuffle the cards. At least that’s what a number of the skippers in pursuit of Groupement Flo are hoping! 'It will be another race entirely between Guernsey and Caen! It’s going to be intriguing!' Yannick Bestaven attests on Le Conservateur. 'It’s going to be thrilling between the Channel Islands and the Raz Blanchard: headwinds, punching tide at Barfleur… the race could be turned on its head!' Sébastien Rogues adds on GDF Suez. Aymeric Chappellier on Team Picoty – Lac de Vassivière shares the same sentiment: 'Things are pretty tight, but the match isn’t over yet. Guernsey will change the tone and Barfleur too! As such we’re continuing to battle on, but we also need to make sure we get some rest so we’re nice and lucid at Guernsey.'

A native of Normandy, Louis Duc (Advanced Energies – Carac) is torn between a sense of solidarity for the sailors from Lower Normandy and the hope that the whole leaderboard will be rejigged: 'Tomorrow’s going to be complicated! I’d like to congratulate Brieuc, but he should watch his back too because there are 15 of us in hot pursuit. It’s a bit of a surprise to see him there. Nobody expected it, least of all him, so it’s absolutely fantastic!'

Groupement Flo – Rémi Aubrun: (with the Belgian accent/ turning Swiss) All’s well here. Brieuc can’t speak to you right now as he’s having a break. It’s a holiday here don’t you know!? We can’t be on deck 24/7! In terms of our strategy, we had two plans at Tuskar Rock, the A and the B. I can’t tell you about A, it’s secret, but plan B… well it worked, to the east. When you have someone like Halvard in hot pursuit, you’ve got to crack on! Right now we don’t really know where to go to get across the English Channel, so I’m drinking my coffee and Brieuc’s sleeping… Happy holidays to you too!

GDF Suez – Sébastien Rogues : We really had fun last night with Bertrand. We didn’t get much sleep, as we had to be ready to snap up all the wind shifts that came our way and the ensuing gybes. Our bulb may be preventing us from being at our optimum speed but we’re making good headway. Groupement Flo’s option wasn’t necessarily the most favourable for us, so we continued on our way and overtook Campagne De France, which is great. Right now everyone’s bunching up again and there’s an almighty battle between fourth and 10th place! I’m not running the routing any further than Lizen Ven as nothing’s set in stone! It’s going to be thrilling between Guernsey and the Raz Blanchard: headwinds, punching tide at Barfleur… the race could be turned on its head!

Campagne De France – Halvard Mabire : It’s a shambles... We’re going to get stuck at Land’s End and the whole race will start over again. We’re going to sit here and wallow whilst our two predecessors make off with the current. GDF Suez really is a lot quicker downwind, so we knew they’d pass us after Tuskar. The pressure’s coming from behind so there aren’t really any options to be had (east or west). The aim right now is simply to adjust the gybes so we’re constantly on the right tack. On the Celtic Sea, the wind is very high so you don’t really feel it too much, but that creates a huge amount of chop and really shakes you about. You really have to venture here in fine weather, because in bad weather it’s a real shocker on the sea. I’ll leave you now, as things are complicated up top.

MS – Sailingteam – Maxime Sorel : Things are going great but we’ve lost a fair amount of ground overnight. We’re belting along, to try and catch up with them. Right now though we’re sailing under spinnaker, in a pretty random 13 to 20-knot breeze. We’re making 10 to 12 knots, which is very pleasant. We’re preparing lunch and we’re dropping back down faster than the trip up to Tuskar! On Friday though, the wind is shifting round to the north-east, which will probably slow us down tomorrow. After Aberwrac’h, I know the area pretty well, so that’s nice. Pascal’s very well. He’s at the helm and won’t let it out of his clutches!

Le Conservateur - Yannick Bestaven : Yesterday morning, we were a bit gutted to have been pinned down but right now it’s great to see ERDF so close. We’re almost within speaking distance. Last night we played around well with the twenty or so knots of wind, crossing one another’s paths under spinnaker. It was a stunning gybing frenzy and we’re all racing hard! We’re going to remain under spinnaker as far as the south-west tip of Cornwall. It’ll be another race entirely between Guernsey and Caen! It’s going to be intriguing!

Team Picoty – Lac de Vassivière – Aymeric Chappellier: 'Things are pretty tight, but the match isn’t over yet. Guernsey will change the tone and Barfleur too! As such we’re continuing to battle on, but we also need to make sure we get some rest so we’re nice and lucid at Guernsey. In the meantime, conditions are mild so we’ll get the rest we need. The descent from Tuskar was considerably faster than the climb up there! We’d best leave you there. We have to manœuvre so as not to get embroiled in the TSS!

Advanced Energies - Carac – Louis Duc: We’ve managed to catch up a bit despite our little detours along the coast over recent days. There are six boats ahead that are tightly grouped within a 2-mile radius, so if we could overtake the whole group in one fail swoop… We suspect we’ll be punching tide at Land’s End so we’ve no choice but to subscribe to that strategy. For the next stage with Guernsey and Barfleur, will we have to drop anchor? Either way, we’ll need to be very alert to what’s going on. Tomorrow’s going to be complicated! I’d like to congratulate Brieuc but he should watch his back too because there are 15 of us in hot pursuit. It’s a bit of a surprise to see him there. Nobody expected it, least of all him, so it’s absolutely fantastic! We’re delighted for them, but they’ll have to stay on their guard!

Team Work – Bertrand Delesne : Five of us are battling it out within a couple of miles of each other. We were amazed to rediscover everyone at Tuskar and we’re not going to ease off the pace. We each tried to get two hours sleep, but with the current and the slight rotations in the wind, we’re pretty busy. It’s nice to be making such good headway on the return leg, which contrasts with the journey up there. For the next stage, I hope we’ll remain grouped, because that means we’re still right in the thick of the action. We don’t want to miss anything in the very narrow places. This race is fabulous with this bunching up of the fleet again. We suffer the consequences sometimes but it’s incredibly motivating to be in amongst it with everyone. There are calms spells ahead again and some violent currents too.

Ranking: (1300 GMT)
1. Groupement Flo (Maisonneuve/ Aubrun)
2. Campagne De France (Merron/ Mabire) + 13.4 nm
3. GDF Suez (Rogues/ Castelnerac) +15.9 nm
4. L'Express - Trepia (Lautrou/ Ruyant) +27.1 nm
5. ERDF - Des pieds et Des mains (Seguin/ Grégoire) +31.7 nm
Event website