Close finish in tri Grand Prix

Final day's racing blown off at the Grand Prix du Pays de Lorient for the 60ft trimarans

As anticipated westerly winds gusting to more than 30 knots caused the third day of racing at the Grand Prix du Pays de Lorient to be cancelled. With five races sailed the Grand Prix went to Franck Cammas' Groupama (above) who held a slender one point lead over Loick Peyron's Fujifilmat the close of play yesterday.

For three boats the Grand Prix was their first ever race and there was a general sense that neither boats nor crews were fully prepared, particularly given the blustery conditions.

Among the new boats was Alain Gautier's new Foncia 2 on which Ellen MacArthur was sailing.

Ellen gave madforsailing her comments on the new boat. "We were lucky to survive yesterday. We had the daggerboard out of the water twice - very very close to the edge. There is no question the new boat is fast, but we have a lot of work to do on the deck layout and systems for a Grand Prix style race.

"My job onboard as crew is the mainsheet, and the traveller system is a bit of handful to operate at present. Anyway, it was good to get out there for me after so long ashore, and for the team to get through the first Grand Prix just days after launching was a relief and an big objective achieved"

Results from the Lorient Grand Prix:

	Boat	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Points
1	Groupama	F Cammas	1	1	2	2	1	7
2	Fujifilm	L Peyron	2	2	1	1	2	8
3	Biscuits La Trinitaine-Team Ethypharm	M Guillemot	4	6	3	5	4	22
4	Bonduelle	J le Cam	3	3	6	6	6	24
5	Banque Populaire	L Roucayrol	DNS	5	4	3	3	25
6	Foncia	A Gautier	DNS	4	5	7	5	31
7	Bayer CropScience	F le Peutrec	DNF	7	7	4	7	35
8	Banque Covefi	B de Broc	DNS	DNF	DNS	8	8	46
9	Sopra Group	P Monnet	DNS	DNS	8	DNS	DNS	48

Offshore Racing Multihull Association 9 Telecom Championship standings after one grand prix. The next race in the championship for the 60ft tris is the Course des Phares from Calais on 19 May. This event is also fully crew and has a co-efficient of three (therefore the winner gets 30 points).

	Boat	Skipper	Points
1	Groupama	F Cammas	10
2	Fujifilm	L Peyron	6
3	Biscuits La Trinitaine-Team Ethypharm	M Guillemot	4
4	Bonduelle	J le Cam	3
5	Banque Populaire	L Roucayrol	2
6	Foncia	A Gautier	1
7	Bayer CropScience	F le Peutrec	0.2
8	Banque Covefi	B de Broc	0.2
9	Sopra Group	P Monnet	0.2

Franck Cammas and his crew celebrate their first victory of the season