Aquece Rio - Participation analysis from Franck Cammas

by Groupama Sailing Team on 10 Aug 2014 Always quick to see the positive side of things despite a mildly frustrating tenth place, the skipper of Groupama, Franck Cammas, gives us a cheery analysis of his participation in the Rio Test Event with Sophie de Turckheim in the Nacra 17. The event was won in style by their compatriots Besson-Riou.

The weather and the race zone: 'Of the five days of racing on the schedule, just three were able to be run in all. The conditions encountered during racing were nothing like those in training. Whilst we were racing, the wind was pretty steady, between 15 and 18 knots, and it was always on the interior race zone, never at sea. Aside from the mass of plastic bags, which you had to try to avoid getting caught in the daggerboards, it was quite interesting and wide open tactically. Unfortunately for us, there were two windless days, which meant that we weren't able to compete in all the races scheduled.'

Our performance: 'The first day was fairly good with a third place overall behind Bundock and Besson - Riou. We were on our game. On the second day, we capsized in the first race whilst we were leading, which was really annoying. In the next two races, a problem with the lock prevented us from hoisting the spinnaker on rounding the windward mark. We lost a good fifteen points or so with that as well as a few places in the overall ranking. On a positive note, we're continuing to make more progress in the breeze. We need to make further improvements with the transitions but it is better. Given the standard of the field here, our performance has been far from ridiculous. We also got off to some good starts, but it's true that in the breeze, we're still finding it difficult to keep an eye on what's happening around us. We're still too focused on what's going on aboard.'

The competition: 'The best players were here, with the exception of the Spanish and the Italians. Billy and Marie were supreme on the second day, securing three bullets. On the whole, the Anglo-Saxons are always in on the action. At times, some strange behaviour is involved, such as when Bundock managed to get a race validated by the jury, despite it having been cancelled on the water by the Race Committee. We'd never seen the likes of that before. In fact, it was the Australian who established the partly erroneous ranking, not the Race Committee.'

The organisation: 'We've received a very warm welcome from the Brazilians. We have yet to sail on a clean race zone though, which for now is too polluted by all sorts of floating objects, which can distort the results. The international jury also need to be stricter. Under the pretext of listening more to the racers, it is not normal to retain a ranking which contains so many irregularities'.

The next event: 'In mid-September we'll all be back in Santander for the World Championships for all the various Olympic series, which will be thrilling. In the Nacra category, there will be four times as many of us, so an almighty battle is on the cards'.

1. FRA - Billy Besson / Marie Riou (8.0-3.0-1.0-(12.5)-1.0-4.0-1.0-1.0-6.0=25.0)
2. AUS - Darren Bundock / Nina Curtis (1.0-1.0-7.0-3.0-3.0-1.0-(15.0)-8.0-12.0=36.0)
3.GBR - Pippa Wilson / John Gimson ((9.0)-7.0-5.0-4.0-7.0-5.0-7.0-3.0-4.0=42.0)
4. NED - Mandy Mulder / Coen de Koning (4.0-6.0-(10.0)-5.0-4.0-6.0-4.0-7.0-8.0=44.0)
5. GBR - Ben Saxton / Hannah Diamond ((6.0)-4.0-4.0-6.0-2.0-2.0-2.0-4.0-20.0=44.0)
6. NZL - Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (3.0-5.0-6.0-2.0-5.0-(7.0)-5.0-5.0-16.0=47.0)
7. AUT - Thomas Zajac / Tamja Frank (2.0-9.0-(13.0)-1.0-11.0-3.0-9.0-2.0-18.0=55.0)
8. SUI - Matias Bühler / Nathalie Brugger (13.0-8.0-8.0-7.0-(17.0)-11.0-11.0-6.0-2.0=66.0)
9. AUS - Euan McNicol / Lucinda Whitty (7.0-2.0-9.0-17.5-6.0-(18.0)-3.0-12.0-10.0=66.5)
10. FRA - Franck Cammas / Sophie de Turckheim (5.0-11.0-2.0-10.0-10.0-(12.0)-10.0-11.0-14.0=73.0)