Prize Giving Brings EDS Atlantic Challenge to a Close

by Event Media on 31 Aug 2001 The EDS Atlantic Challenge came to an official end with the
prize giving ceremony in St. Malo.
Adding to the excitement, the all-girl
team aboard AlphaGraphics narrowly
made it in time having finished the
final leg less than two hours before
the first champagne bottle was
uncorked.

One of the most impressive prizes
was not handed out. On display was
the EDS trophy for the fastest
24-hour speed record. While the
record was not broken during the
EDS Atlantic Challenge, a special
award was given to Fila for their 24-hour run of 445 miles, the
fastest of the race.

At the prize giving ceremony Gordon Moultrie, EDS Vice
President EMEA made the announcement that all the skippers
and crew had been waiting for. “This has been a successful
event for EDS,” he said. “We were very excited to get involved
with the Open 60 fleet and are proud to announce that plans
are already in place for another EDS Atlantic Challenge in 2005.
However, as that date is a long way off, we have decided also
to support the growth of the Open 60 class as much as we can
in the interim.” With that announcement, and with the prize
giving behind them, liberal amounts of champagne was sprayed
from the podium.

In the most poignant gesture of the evening, Roland Jourdain,
skipper of Sill Plein Fruit presented framed photos of his boat to
the other teams, and to EDS. The picture included a dynamic
series of images taken as their mast broke at the start of Leg 4.
“I would like to thank the skippers and crews for the help and
encouragement when we had such a bad disaster,” he said.
“You are all the most wonderful people delaying the start so
that we could race the last leg with you, and I thank you.” This
gesture, and the gesture made by the other teams to delay the
start of Leg 5 to accommodate Sill Plein Fruit amply sum up the
spirit of the EDS Atlantic Challenge.

Official finish times for Leg 5:

1st Kingfisher (Nick Moloney – UK) 15:14:20 GMT Saturday
2nd Sill Plein Fruit (Roland Jourdain – FR) 15:50:10 GMT
Saturday
3rd Ecover (Mike Golding – UK) 16:17:00 GMT Saturday
4th Fila (Andréa Scarabelli – IT) 22:23:05 GMT Saturday
5th Gartmore (Josh Hall - UK) 23:37:18 GMT Sunday
6th AlphaGraphics (Helena Darvelid – SWE) 15:06:27 GMT
Wednesday

Combined times for the EDS Atlantic Challenge

1st Kingfisher (Nick Moloney – UK) 34 days 12 hours 12 minutes
12 seconds
2nd Sill Plein Fruit (Roland Jourdain – FR) did not sail Leg Four
3rd Ecover (Mike Golding – UK) 35 days 18 hours 58 minutes 51
seconds
4th Gartmore (Josh Hall - UK) 38 days 15 hours 37 minutes 19
seconds
5th AlphaGraphics (Helena Darvelid – SWE) 46 days 22 hours 39
minutes 23 seconds
6th Fila (Andréa Scarabelli – IT) did not sail Leg Three & Four

Total points for the EDS Atlantic Challenge

1st Kingfisher (Nick Moloney – UK) 38
2nd Sill Plein Fruit (Roland Jourdain – FR) 31
3rd Ecover (Mike Golding – UK) 30
4th Gartmore (Josh Hall - UK) 26
5th AlphaGraphics (Helena Darvelid – SWE) 17
6th Fila (Andréa Scarabelli – IT) 14
7th La Rage de Vivre (Loic Pochet - FR) 5'
? retired during Leg 2 due to keel problems
?
Skipper retrospectives.

Nick Moloney, Kingfisher. “The EDS Atlantic Challenge has been
just that. Very challenging, but also very rewarding. This a
terrific race and we are proud and honoured to be the winners
of this first event. I think that we are most happy and proud of
the fact that we never let go of the hope that could win this
race, and here we are taking home the trophies.”

Andrea Scarabelli, Fila. “ When I accepted the job to skipper
Fila, I said good bye to long nights of sleep and kept a notebook
and pen beside my bed! In a blink we where on the starting line
and for two month we run and run without taking a breath with
too with many miles and stories to tell. Now the race is finished,
and even if our score is bad, I’m happy of what we have done.”

Josh Hall, Gartmore. “It has truly been a great race, one of the
best. The boats and crews have been pushed hard, very hard
and the racing has been superlative. We aboard Gartmore
sincerely hope there will be more EDS races in the future, and
we are sure the entry list will get bigger and bigger. Bravo EDS,
for sponsoring such a benchmark event.”

Mike Golding, Ecover. “I was pleased to be able to introduce
some new British sailing talent to this event and was very happy
with how my crew performed. We learned how to get the most
out of Ecover and had the boat performing better than ever.”

Helena Darvelid, AlphaGraphics. “The word adventure comes to
mind. There have been highs and lows and I have enjoyed every
moment of it. The highs being in the company of a great and
determined crew and sailing in some brilliant conditions like
starlit nights with dolphins right next to us for comfort. The
lows, when the stress and pressure has been just a bit too
much, and also the scary bits like Asia falling overboard. All of
these things were a challenge and if everything was easy in life
it would not make things interesting.”

Roland Jourdain, Sill Plein Fruit. “The most important thing in this
race was the fair play shown by the other skippers when they
voted to delay the start from Boston by one day. That was just
incredible. This was really a big, big thing to do. Can you
imagine Mike Golding actually took this decision when we were
equal in points, and now we have beaten him. So a big thank
you to Mike. You are a great sportsman.”

Event website:
www.edsatlanticchallenge.com