Ellen and Alain day

But bad for Fujifilm and other tris at the 9 Telecom ORMA Grand Prix in Fecamps

It was a good day however for Alain Gautier and Ellen MacArthur on board Gautier's trimaran Foncia-Kingfisher. They finished second behind Fujifilm in the first race and managed to win the second following Fujifilm's dismasting. They currently lead the Grand Prix. "We benefitted a bit from the other boats' worries, but we were really at ease, we manoeuvred very well. We know our boat inside and out, even in a strong breeze, which certainly helped us a lot. It's a good day for us, we're quite satisfied !" declared Foncia's Mick Kermadec.

"It was tough, we were starting to submarine quite a bit, ideal conditions for breaking something," commented Belgacom's Pierre Mas back at the docks.

The weather conditions the eight multihulls encountered today are were far from ideal for the 60ft tris: "With 18-20 knots winds, we have to choose between the solent and the staysail. Either we overload the boat, or we are unbalanced and hit the waves," confessed Groupama's skipper Franck Cammas.

Cammas' Groupama, started slowly but ended up putting in a good performance and now lies second overall after two races. "We were not brilliant, but we didn't want to break anything on the boat especially on the first race," commented Cammas. "We took some time to let all the crew get a nice feeling. We played it safe, as there are quite a number of races ahead."

Despite her damaged gennaker pole, it was a good day too for Banque Populaire, always in a good position on the first upwind leg (even ahead at the first mark in the first race). Julien Cressant, trimmer commented: "The breeze suits us really fine. We knew that already, but now it is confirmed. We had good starts. It's really a shame to have suffered some damage." Banque Populaire had to sail all the downwind legs with only her solent jib.