Londres-Alpes Maritimes race still on for Sopra

by Event Media on 17 May 2006 Antoine Koch and his five crew have latched onto a little wind in the Balearic Islands. Although the first five boats have arrived in Nice, the Londres-Alpes Maritimes yacht race is on-going for the crew of Sopra Group.

The first five finishers made it into Nice on Monday, but the gaps between the top three trimarans and the fourth and fifth boats across the line do not reflect the reality of the race.

Gitana 11 and 12 appeared in the Baie des Anges at the end of the afternoon just as a 10 knot SE breeze gave up the ghost. As a result, it took Frédéric Le Peutrec and his crew (Gitana 11) more than three hours to complete the last five miles! Gitana 12 used this to catch up and arrived in Nice just one hour behind the Eleven.

Tuesday was spent drying out. After one week at sea, the crews were obviously pleased to get out of their sodden rags and take a good shower ! And a real meal too. Meanwhile, back at the ranch… Sopra Group was still tacking her way in across the Mediterranean..

'We’re tacking just beneath Ibiza in 10-12 knots of wind. But it’s nice out here. Wind even peaked at 25 knots in the squalls. Sea state was rather chaotic this morning. Now we’re drying out the foul weather gear but the boat is in great shape and we can’t wait to get in. We’ve still got water left, but not that much food so we’ve started rationning. In spite of the fact that we’ve not been in the running for some time, we’re still concentrating on sailing her fast, learning all the time and so that we don’t get into Nice too late. We reckon we’ll reach the Côte d’Azur on Thursday evening or Friday morning.' Grégory Gendron.

'I was asleep! Can’t wait to get to Nice but still want to enjoy the last few moments at sea. Last night was superb with 20 knots of wind and a wonderful moon. All of us appreciate moments like that after what we’ve been through. We’re a bit fed up. Not quite so much about our result but because we haven’t had the chance to pit ourselves against the other boats. We were aiming to use this to prepare for the Route du Rhum, so we reckon that we have not learnt as much as we ought to have done.' Antoine Koch.


Banque Populaire IV’s protest against Groupama 2.

Pascal Bidégorry’s (Banque Populaire IV) protest against Franck Cammas (Groupama 2) for failing to have his navigation lights on at night time has been ruled upon by the jury. Following what turned out to be contradictory statement submitted by the two skippers and in the absence of eye witnesses, the Jury closed the hearing, commenting that it was 'not convinced that a rule had been breached.' The overall scoreboard remains unchanged.


Scoreboard - Londres-Alpes Maritimes :

1-Franck Cammas (Groupama 2) in 6d 21h 03’ 04’’ at an average speed of 12.67 knots over the 2 075 nautical miles from London to Nice

2-Pascal Bidégorry (Banque Populaire IV) in 6d 21h 26’ 36’’ : 23 minutes 32 seconds from the winner.

3-Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant) in 6d 23h 33’ 22’’ : 2 hours 30 minutes and 22 seconds from the winner.

4-Frédéric Le Peutrec (Gitana 11) in 7j 04h 14’ 03’’ : 7 hours 10 minutes and 59 seconds from the winner.

5-Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (Gitana 12) in 7j 05h 11’ 42’’ : 8h 08’ 38’ from the winner.

6-Antoine Koch (Sopra Group) : 436 miles from the finish (at 15hoo today French time).