Drama in La Trinite

Phil Crebbin reports on the neck and neck 8m racing

In a quite shifty and patchy breeze of 8-12 knots the sixth race of the 8 Metre World Cup was probably the closest and most exciting race experienced in the class.

The first five places finished in less than a minute with first ahead of second by four seconds, then a further fourteen seconds to third, only one second to fourth and thirty seconds to fifth - incredibly close for any boats but particularly boats like 8 Metres. Places were changing throughout the race right up to the finish and Fleur de Lys' colours were finally lowered by Gefion by that initial four seconds.

Fleur had led the race from the first mark, but for once did not manage to sail away while everybody else was fighting it out. She suffered a couple of handling problems in the close racing and dropped back through the group until she was only fifth part of the way up the final leg when she dipped behind Lafayette.

Then close to the finish layline, Mystery tacked on Lafayette, Yquem tacked on Mystery and Gefion tacked on Yquem, allowing Fleur a clear lane and a chance to get back into the group. Only Gefion then crossed her and finished on port while Fleur finished on starboard around a boatlength behind, her luff head to wind not quite getting her there. With Gefion affecting Yquem prior to that, Mystery was able to hold high to escape Yquem and get a clear lane to gain the advantage by the single second. Lafayette tried to keep a clear lane below Yquem and at one time looked as though she might be able to get Mystery while the latter was being affected by Yquem but this quickly changed when Yquem sailed lower because of Gefion. Lafayette then had to give away too much to stay clear as she would not quite have got Mystery if she had tacked.

Bona was next to finish over two minutes further back to consolidate her lead in both the Sira Cup and the Coupe Cartier. Amorevita had an excellent race to finish as high as 11th, comfortably beating Catina VI, her main rival for second position in the Coupe Cartier, who was five places further back. Amorevita has won redress for the race when her spreaders were broken by another boat and this means she is now in second place on tie-break over Catina VI.

There will still possibly be two races on Friday and so the battle for the podium places behind Fleur de Lys will continue to be as hard fought. Lafayette, the only modern boat without a wing keel, is still just holding on to second place overall ahead of Yquem, Mystery and Gefion.

Race 6:
1. Gefion (Benoit de Gorski / Pierre Bonjour, Switzerland)
2. Fleur de Lys (Jacques Fauroux, France)
3. Mystery (Ron Palm, Canada)
4. Yquem (Jean Fabre, Switzerland)
5. Lafayette (Jos Fruytier / Philip Crebbin, Holland).
6. Bona  (Giovanni Mogna, Italy) 

Overall after six races (with one discard):
1. Fleur de Lys              5 pts
2. Lafayette                 17 pts
3. Yquem                    18 pts
4. Mystery                  20 pts
5. Gefion                     21 pts
6. Aluette                    23 pts           

Sira Cup (Classic and Vintage combined):
1. Bona          30 pts 
2. Vision  (Tan Raffray, France)            36 pts
3. Cutty Tou (G & A Minos, France)      37 pts
4. Sposa II (Josef Martin, Germany)      46 pts

Coupe Cartier (Vintage only):
1. Bona                                                   5 pts
2. Amorevita (Avia Willment, Great Britain) 12 pts 
3. Catina VI  (Fred Meyer, Switzerland)      12 pts