Gautier and MacArthur take Grand Prix

Foncia-Kingfisher wins the ORMA's circuit's Fecamp Grand Prix in variable conditions

Foncia, fair and square

With great consistency - fourth was their worst result - and with great ease, Alain Gautier, Ellen MacArthur and their crew on board Foncia dominated the regatta and now lead the overall 9 TELECOM Championship standings. Alain Gautier, the former Vendee Globe winner, was thrilled by his victory: "We know we have a good boat. Foncia is finely tuned and ready". The white trimaran along with her sistership Groupama must now be considered as the top boats in this exciting class and favourites for November's two handed Transat Jacques Vabre.

Behind, Belgacom and Banque Populaire fought a close battle for the third place. This ended up in Lalou Roucayrol's favor, the first display of form for this new Marc Lombard design. Bonduelle was severely handicapped in the points following a day at the docks spent fixing her damaged forward crossbeam she collided with her sistership Fila. She came back to win one race on Saturday, but did not live up to her impressive performance at the last ORMA Grand Prix in Cagliari, Sardinia. She seemed especially poor starting.

Further behind, Giovanni Soldini confided that Fila was still "under construction". They keep on learning, although not as fast as he had hoped. Finally, Baygon(formerly Laurent Bourgnon's Primagaz), sporting her old sails to preserve the new one for the Transat Jacques Vabre, stayed behind the fleet for all three days.