One point separation

Small lead for Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini after lighter day in Fecamps

After Friday's drama, the race course off Fecamps was in more summery mood today allowing the race organisers to get three races off for the ten ORMA 60 trimarans and one catamaran competing in the circuit's second Grand Prix of the season. In fact the fleet was down to nine today - Yves Parlier's catamaran Mediatis Region Aquitaine remained resolutely tied to the dock following a luff to leech split in one of her mainsails on Friday and the Gitana X crew spent the day moping around/sharing war stories following their dramatic slow motion pitchpole yesterday.

While the conditions today were benign - the wind peaking to perhaps 12 knots during the second race but more often 6-8 - and there was little centre-hull flying antics it gave the tacticians more of an opportunity to prove themselves playing a number of options here from the tide to the effects of the wind in the break in the high Dover-style cliffs just west of Fecamps. Good boat handling was also crucial the feather weight multihulls prone to stopping dead in their tracks during manoeuvres

Last season the results table in the ORMA fleet was a little predictable with Franck Cammas' Groupama the dominant boat. Now the field appears to have opened up. Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini, the only remaining Nigel Irens/Benoit Cabaret design still racing in the fleet, earlier this year was proving herself to be the form boat, despite being nobbled once again by Cammas at the La Trinite Grand Prix. Now Cammas and his crew are getting to grips with a new boat, although they appear to be getting their act together faster than most with new boats in this class. The other major force to be reckoned with is former Olympic Tornado sailor Fred le Peutrec at the helm of Baron Rothschild's Gitana XI.

Today all three of these boats took their turn in winning a race and now hold a clear points advantage over the chasing pack after four races.

Overall results after four races:

1- Sergio Tacchini (Karine Fauconnier), 1 + 1 + 2 +3 = 7 points
2- Gitana 11 (Fred Le Peutrec), 2 + 3 +1 +2 = 8 pts
3- Groupama 2 (Franck Cammas), 3 + 5 +3 +1 = 12 pts
4- Banque Populaire (Lalou Roucayrol), 5+2+6 +6 = 19 pts
5- Foncia (Alain Gautier), 4+7+4 +5 = 20 pts
6- Banque Covefi (Stève Ravussin), 6+4 +8 +7 = 25 pts
7- Géant (Michel Desjoyeaux),7+6 +5 +8 = 26 pts
8- Sodebo (Thomas Coville), 8+8+7 +4 = 27 pts
9- Sopra Group (Philippe Monnet), 9+ 9 +9 +9 = 36 pts
10- Mediatis Région Aquitaine (Yves Parlier), 12+12 +12 +12 = 48 pts
10- Gitana X (Marc Guillemot), 12+12 +12 +12 =48 pts