Australian’s fifth - French win Mumm 30 Worlds

by Event Media Richard Perini on 5 Jun 2005 Defending Mumm 30 World Champion and current Farr 40 World Champion Richard Perini reports as his bid to win again in La Trinite sur Mer, France fails.

It was another perfect sailing day to finish the last two races of the Mumm 30 World Championship.

There was breeze building out of the west from 12-20 knots as another front rolled through and cleared the clouds for some beautiful sailing on the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Morbihan.

The start of Race 10 was on time with no problems, but the black flag was hoisted for Race 11 after a general recall. After the upset caused earlier in the event, the sailors were far more respectful and the start was clear.

Two four-leg windward leeward courses were completed and the new world champions are Pierre-Loic Berthet and his crew aboard Bouygues Telecom.

Their conservative finishes of 8 and 19 were enough to pass Toulon Provence Mediteranee Coych who were mid fleet today.

Here is the final day from an Australian perspective
Foreign Affair - 2005 Mumm 30 Worlds, Day 4

Chilly breeze today at about 14-18 knots for the final days racing.

Race 10 brought another general recall followed by a black flag, but this time there were no offenders for the second start.

Foreign Affair rounded the first two marks in 2nd place after a good start and solid first beat, but were forced to yield a place after the race leader bounced us out to the unfavoured left hand side. We held third to the finish.

Our start for the final race was a little mediocre with our Farr 40 tactician, Hamish Pepper onboard Groovederci, bolting into the lead
and Foreign Affair managing a 14th place finish.

That bumped us up onto the podium at fifth overall for the regatta, with Bouyges Telecom (FRA) the new world champion on 84 points from Toulon Provence (FRA), 91, Asterix (GBR) 100, Le Port-Bred-Reunion (FRA) 117 and Foreign Affair on 128.

Interestingly, the five teams here that also run Farr 40 campaigns finished consecutively: Foreign Affair 5th, Groovederci 6th, Twins 7th, Mean Machine 8th and Barking Mad 9th.

So, fifth in the Mumm30 Worlds, but we won the Farr 40 division!