Sea, Sail & Surf news
Photo : Ch.GuiguenoSolitaire du Figaro
Here’s to hardship… to « Droug’ » !
Leg two start from Crosshaven
dimanche 11 août 2002 –
« To the cleat ! » confirms Sébastien Audigane (Sports Sans Frontières). « The wild boar leg », says Jean-Paul Mouren (M@rseille Entreprises). Sunday morning, feverishness is in the air… and the skippers cast off their mooring ropes behind schedule : not in too much of a hurry to rub shoulders with Aeolus who has promised to gather up the fleet as the second start gets underway with rather strong winds from the west north-west and squalls up to 35 knots.
Early this morning on the pontoons of Crosshaven, everyone was putting the finishing touches to their preparation. Hats screwed down over the ears for some, others already booted up… everyone was muffling themselves up for the first wet-salty hours. « For me, it’s the evening meal and the front light well positioned in the cockpit… I’ll set up camp outside because we’ll have to spend long hours attached to the helm under spinnaker tonight », explains Romain Attanasio (Port de Trébeurden). Things aren’t shaping up to be much fun for the amateurs and newcomers in this stage and everyone knows that the descent of the Irish Sea is going to be hard. « The night will be long and windy. That will be very tiring at the start. I have been resting as much as possible », confides Jean-François Bulot (Crédit Mutuel), who had just woken from a little siesta as it came time to go.
The Irish sky is particularly colourful, hesitating between showers and clear spells. On the water the repetitive beatings from the wind ordered the modification of the warm-up route. At 1123, a first canon fire indicated launch time : and so 10 miles of regatta began, regularly interspersed with squalls as far as the Radio France marker. But these were already playing with the bows and several soloists – this time very excited – overran the start line. There was a general recall and the black flag was waved : this brought an end to the piracy as another early cut across the line would mean immediate disqualification ! That being said the Figaro Bénéteau were on tiptoe to have their muzzles on the line : good and together.
1151 : good start, on a starboard tack on leaving the bay of Cork and the green Irish hills for the sea. The sun made a welcome appearance to salute the soloists entered into the heat of the action in a 20 knot north-westerly. Eric Drouglazet – as if by chance – was the first to display his pretensions. Straight from the line, he wove himself into the lead, followed by Philippe Vicariot (Thales), Kito de Pavant (Malice) and Benoît Petit (Top’ Océan). The title holder of the Single-handed Figaro is making progress « fully canvassed ». This is his leg and it gives him the opportunity in the first 24 hours to show off his talent for speed and long glides under spinnaker !
« 33 minutes and 38 seconds » behind, according to the first temporary general rankings and he has to keep a wary eye on « the » Koch (Saunier Duval) and the procession of all those who preceded him into Crosshaven… « We’ll see in four days, confides the soloist to beat in this second round. Just because I had a super leg last year in 35 knots of wind doesn’t mean that I’m above all the others. I certainly love these conditions but it’s going to be raging a bit the first night since they forecast more wind than planned with strong gusts of 35-40 knots. It’s going to play on the strength of the arms, but plenty of things could happen and I always dread damage. ».
Etape 2 : Crosshaven/Les Sables d’Olonne
Classement à la bouée Radio France (Crosshaven)
1 DROUGLAZET Eric 1 David Olivier 38
2 VICARIOT Philippe 44 Thales 37
3 JOSSE Sébastien 2 Créaline 36
4 CAUDRELIER Charles 5 Bostik Findley 35
5 DE PAVANT Christophe 8 Malice 34
6 TABARLY Erwan 7 Thales - Armor Lux 33
7 MORVAN Gildas 4 Cercle Vert 32
8 ELIES Yann 9 Groupe Générali Assurances 31
9 CHIORRI Gilles 24 32 01 de Météo Consult 30
10 GUERIN Ronan 150 Saint-Nazaire / Escal’Atlantic 29
11 LE CLEAC’H Armel 6 Créaline 28
12 BEYOU Jérémie 3 Delta Dore 27
13 PETIT Benoit 201 Top’Océan 26
14 AUDIGANE Sébastien 46 Sport Sans Frontières 25
15 CHABAGNY Thierry 147 Petit Navire Le Bon Goût du Large 24
16 MOUREN Jean-Paul 97 M@rseille Entreprises 23
17 € FEREC Alain 94 Hotel Vauban - Camaret sur Mer 22
18 RIOU Vincent 85 PRB Produits de Revêtement du Bâtiment 21
19 COATNOAN Christophe 19 Groupe Partouche 20
20 ATTANASIO Romain 51 Port Trebeurden 19
21 € RIOU Gwénaël 42 Espoir Crédit Agricole 18
22 KOCH Antoine 10 Saunier Duval 17
23 € GREGOIRE Yann 33 Sailfast.Biz Gestion Projet Voile 16
24 PELLECUER Laurent 110 Languedoc Mutualité Hippocratus.com 15
25 TROUSSEL Nicolas 136 Galinette 14
26 TOULORGE Alexandre 35 Cherbourg - Crédit Mutuel 13
27 € BOISSIERES Arnaud 30 Delta Dore & Partenaires 12
28 NABART Laurent 27 Ajaccio Corse du sud 11
29 € MARTINAGE Yvan 11 Société Générale - CAB - Boulogne/mer 10
30 € GREGOIRE Jeanne 18 Département de l’Aisne 9
31 BALOGH François 14 Générale d’Emballage - FIGA 8
32 € GRAVELEAU Vincent 101 Bati 85 Qualeader 7
33 MARSSET Bertrand 22 Passion 6
34 € BULOT Jean-François 142 Crédit Mutuel 5
35 € PEYRET Jean-Marie 21 Dubus SA, la Bourse Universelle 4
36 ALFARO Amaiur 50 Le Journal du Pays Basque 3
37 ROBEIN Louis 100 Le Souffle de la mer 2
38 € TINCELIN Dominique 214 Dragonfly 1Dans la même rubrique
Solitaire du Figaro : On track under spinnaker…
Solitaire du Figaro : These amateurs who love single handed racing
Solitaire du Figaro : Cascades of close finishers behind Antoine Koch
Solitaire du Figaro : Hold on in the currents !
Kito de Pavant at the start from Boulogne sur Mer. Photo : Ch.Guigueno
