Class 40’ World Championship 2010 - The Spanish rule in Gijon

by Pierrick Garenne on 25 Jul 2010 Class 40’ World Championship 2010, The Spanish rule in Gijon - Tales (ESP) takes the lead on the coastal course and in the general ranking. The coastal course – 30 miles – started later this afternoon. Gonzalo Botin shows his talent on the inshore courses today and wins the race in front of 40 Degrees with Peter Harding and the inevitable Thierry Bouchard. A beautiful victory for the Spanish team, on this great day that allows them to take the first place in the general ranking, before the decision of the jury.

Concise 2 (GBR), scores 2, Ned Collier-Wakefield and his crew proved their skills today and dominated the Windward-Leeward courses (ie. two round trips between an upwind and a downwind buoy). They win both races under 8 to 15 knots of wind blowing from the Northeast. Good start, good decisions, good manoeuvres… This English crew does definitely well on inshore courses.

On Tales, (ESP), Gonzalo Botin and his men end up second twice in a row, Thierry Bouchard on Mistral Loisirs-Pôle Santé Elior finishes third both times as well. Sam Manuard on Vecteur Plus and Thomas Ruyant on Destination Dunkerque both finish third on one race and fourth on the other. Now, these five crews are going to have to fight for the title.

On Concise 2, Ned Collier-Wakefield is number 8 on the coastal course, and misses the opportunity to be champion tonight. Again, today proved that this 2010 Class40 World Championship will be led by 5 boats: Tales, Concise 2, Mistral Loisirs-Pôle Santé Elior, Destination Dunkerque and Vecteur Plus.

In the general ranking the Spanish team is leader tonight, follwed by Mistral Loisir-Pôle Santé Elior at the second place, and Concise 2 and Destination Dunkerque placed equal. Needless to say that tomorrow will be a very interesting day. The number of rounds will depend on the wind. The teams should run two races, this might set up a new deal.

Quotes from boats:
Gonzalo Botin (Tales), leader in the ranking after 4 races:
'We were very efficient today, we were always first to reach the buoy. This way we managed to maintain our position. The weather didn’t change much, and we sailed the same way all day. We have good opponants, we just have to keep up the good work. Our tactician, Pichu was brilliant today and we owe him our victory today'

Ned Collier Wakefield (Concise 2):
Two victories today, one defeat... 'The breeze, there was more wind today, it really helped to put things in motion. The boat reacted well, it’s just a bummer the wind went back down later. This caused us to loose speed during the third race. There was also a wind shift which really put us out. But we’re happy, we won the first two races, it’s been a good day... it all comes down to tomorrow now.'

About your opponents... 'They were good, they sailed really well. We had a great time fighting against Tales, I think they should be leading now. You know, you just need to hold on in these situations.'

The forecast for tomorrow... 'It’s supposed to be light winds as well, this is not the best for us because our boat doesn’t do so well with light breeze. So tonight we’re going to study the weather forecast a bit more and see what we can do tomorrow when we’re on the water. But so far it’s good, we were fifth yesterday and we won two races today, it’s a nice catching up.'

Thierry Bouchard (Mistral Loisirs-Pôle Santé Elior) :
'The Spanish are good, very well prepared. We’re glad to be here and confront ourselves with all these great sailors. The thing is that we don’t have the sails we should have for this weather. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, the championship is still quite open and it is going to be decisive.'

Provisional ranking, after 4 races, Mundial 40’ Gijon before the decisión of the jury:
1. ESP65 – TALES (Gonzalo Botin) – 7 points
2. FRA83 – MISTRAL LOISIRS-POLE SANTÉ ELIOR (Thierry Bouchard) – 11 points
3. GBR93 - CONCISE 2 (Ned Collier Wakefield) – 15 points
4. FRA88 – DESTINATION DUNKERQUE (Thomas Ruyant) – 15 points
5. SMR84 – VECTEUR PLUS (Sam Manuard) – 24 points
6. GBR90 – 40 DEGREES (Peter Harding) – 26 points
7. GER66 – RED (Mathias Müller) – 27 points
8. FRA85 - GROUPE PICOTY (Jean-Edouard Criquioche) – 31 points
9. NED75 – MOONPALACE (Adriaan Van Oord & Roeland Frassens) – 31 points
10. RSA23 – PHESHEYA RACING (Nick Leggatt) – 39 points
11. FRA26 – MARIE TOIT-CAEN LA MER (Marc Lepesqueux) – 40 points
12. FRA91 – KOGANE (Patrice Bougard) – 46 points
13. FRA56 – NEURODON.FR/ESPOIR EN TETE (Christian Chardonnal) – 52 points
14. FRA20 – AUX FILLES DE L’EAU (Anna Corbella) – 56 points

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