Blink - and they've gone

Incredible 60ft trimaran fleet roar out of Le Havre. James Boyd reports

While Groupama and Fujifilm rounded cleanly, a group of the 60ft long by 60ft wide trimarans descended upon the mark simultaneously. It was fortunate that close in to the land there was not much breeze and it was quite managable (unlike some of the trimaran Grand Prix where the tris often converge at speeds of 25-30 knots). An incident occurred Alain Gautier's Foncia bore away to tuck into the mark forcing Karine Fauconnier to manoeuvre to avoid a collision. Fauconnier's protest is currently outstanding.

The boats rounded the mark, gybed and set off out to sea. For the chase boats it was all they could do to keep up. Leaving the bay Groupama had done a horizon job on the fleet.

Franck Cammas' Groupama leads the fleet away from Le Havre