Australians Bundock and Ashby win Eurocat

by Julia Huvé on 5 May 2006 Leading going into the medal round of the 38th Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, Australian’s Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby had to pull out to defend their Eurocat Hobie Tiger title in Camac. That they did that in style, winning for the third year running.

Two rounds were raced in Carnac on Sunday, two new wins for the Australian duo who won the Eurocat event hands down.

Bundock and Ashby won five out of the six rounds raced in the series. To top it all, they also won the Houat – Hoëdic Raid. The only crew to threaten the boys from Oz was the French Pro Team, Jean-Christophe Mourniac and Franck Citeau, taking first place in a round on Saturday, relegating Bundock and Ashby to second on that round.

Darren Bundock commented ‘The level of the competition in Carnac gets tougher every year. There was a tough fight on each round. This morning was the only time when we led from start to finish, after having been first to round the first race mark. The Eurocat is one of the biggest get-togethers of performance catamarans in the world. For all that the level in Australia is high, you never see more than 100 catamarans racing. Here there were more than 400 ! It’ll be a great pleasure to come back next year.’

Franck Citeau : ‘ Bit of a mixed bag from our point of view. Some good, some not quite so good as we say. We broke a spinnaker halyard on Friday and capsized this morning when a cleat failed to open. But all in all, we sail fast, particularly yesterday when we finished second in the Raid. Hobie Tigers are the same world wide whether you sail as an amateur or professional. And the level is getting better all the time.

'You can play around with sail shape and tweak one or two points here and there and the there’s the amount of training you can fit in which can also make a difference. We worked well through the winter – Kinou and I can put up a good fight. The Australians are not too far ahead which bodes well for the F18 World Championship in July..’

Tomorrrow, Jean-Christophe Mourniac will be joining Michel Desjoyeaux to deliver the Trimaran Géant from Port La Forêt over to London, from where she will be setting out next Sunday on the London-Nice race.

Just like Franck, Kinou is about to start his sixth season on these multihull machines where their Hobie Tiger and Tornado experience is worth its weight in gold. ‘The finely-honed helming skills acquired over the 15 years spent racing small high performance catamarans is much sought-after by the trimaran skippers. In light conditions which we might come across in the Mediterranean on the London-Nice race, it could be crucial.

‘Hobie Tigers don’t have rev counters on board. It all comes down to a matter of feeling. On 60’ trimarans, I can sense instinctively where the boat’s balance and speed lies. I don’t always agree with what the computer indicates.’

After their brilliant Tornado performance last week in Hyeres, ‘ Bundy ‘ (Silver medallist at the Sydney Games and four times World Tornado Champion) literally sailed through this 20th Eurocat competition. With Glenn (three times world Class A champion), they will be seeing each other once again ten days from now on Hobie Tigers at the ISAF World Championships in Austria.

Then they will be joining the Pro Team for the legendary Round Texel race in Holland. This incredible event draws a total of 800 boats onto the same starting line for a one day race round the island of Texel.

The full Nissan Hobie Cat Pro Team will be there as the third team, the Spanish crew of Echavarri and Paz, newcomers to the F18 class and currently world number one in the Tornado class, will be joining the French and Australians for the first time this season.


Round Texel (Texel / Holland) – 17th June
Championnat du Monde Formule 18 (Hyères,France) - 9th to 16th July
Championnat du Monde Tiger (Cangas, Spain) – 24th to 28th July