De Ridder shows early form

At the practice race for the Mumm 30 World Championships in La Trinite-sur-Mer reports Andy Nicholson

Yesterday's practice race for the Mumm 30 World Championships held of La Trinite-sur-Mer on the waters of Quiberon Bay was sailed in light conditions and Peter de Ridder’s Mean Machine, the current European Champion, sailed fast and smooth to take first place.

Defending World Champion, and current Rolex Farr 40 World Champion, Richard Perini did not race and Foreign Affair remain tied up on the dock for the whole day.

However it was the newcomer to the class, Jim Richardson who put the Dutch team under the most pressure for the first lap of the course before slipping down a couple of places on the final leg.

Performance of the day was Jack Kelly and Moonshine, who sailed very well and finished in the top five.

On Bent Deitrich's Rainbow we had a slow start to the race getting buried in the second row and taking some time to find ourselves a clear lane. Our most significant gains during the race were coming in on the port layline and finding ourselves a good slot in round the mark both times. We were also sailing well on the last run and got ourselves into the teens, with Robert Barr’s Kanati just holding us off at the finish.

Today we have a postponement up and no boats have left the harbour and we are sitting in the yacht club café looking out on a glassy sea.

We have a happy crew and we are now fluent in Australian. Tow Truck owner Anthony Patterson (Pato) and Bret Filby (Breto), who are in our crew, have been teaching us various key words in Australian which usually means adding an O to the end of the word in English. Our French is not doing too bad either - we need to go to the local pharmacy and see if we can get something for our mal de vegetation - the house is full of sneezing blokos in the morning.

Entries

Boat	Sail no	Skipper	YC
AEOLUS	FRA50	B. Charon	Y C GRANVILLE
ALPES MARITIMES	FRA4	S. Chtounder	S N BANDOL
AMEC SPIE SODIFAC ROUBAIX (TV1)	FRA18336	E. Basset	Y.C.DINARD
ASTERIX	GBR3093	L. Browne	RYA
BARKING MAD	USA65	J. Richardson	ETATS UNIS
BELVEDERE-EBSCO	FRA 18339	V. Portugal	Y C PORQUEROLLES
BOUYGUES TELECOM	FRA18348	Pl. Berthet	APCC VOILE SPORTIVE
CARRY-CNTL-UNIMECA (KEEP COOL)	FRA18306	C. Bauler	C N T LACYDON
CHARLY III	FRA18327	Jy. Jaffrezic	Y C DE LA BAULE
COTES D'ARMOR	FRA22	V. Biarnes	S R PERROS GUIREC
COURRIER DUNKERQUE (DEFI JEAN BART)	FRA18349	G. Trentesaux	Y.C.DINARD
DANGEROUS BUT FUN	MON2003	M. Perris	MONACO
DEFI PARTAGE-MARSEILLE (AD HOC LEGENDE)	FRA18322	T. Bouchard	S N MARSEILLE
DUNKERQUE PLAISANCE (CYCLONE)	FRA18030	D. Souben	S R VANNES
EMINENCE (CODIAM)	FRA18335	S. Brain	S R B
FELICITY	GBR6330	H. Harwood/Nick Hartshorn	ENGLAND
FILENET (TV2)	FRA18337	L. Corazza	S R CONCARNEAU
FOREIGN AFFAIR	AUS6133	R. Perini	AUSTRALIE
GROOVEDERCI	USA35	D. Demourkas	ETAT UNIS
INEO SUEZ POLE I.R.S (STICKY FINGERS)	BEL9330	P. Langlais	Y C CHERBOURG
KANATI	GBR1430	C.R. Barr	ENGLAND
LE POR-BRED-REUNION (MUMMALOYA)	FRA974	M. Guessard	C N PORTOIS
MAMMY !	IRL50590	Foley Diarmuid	IRELAND
MEAN MACHINE	NED7179	P. de Ridder	KNWV
MOONSHINE	GBR1530R	Jack Kelly	ENGLAND
ORLOFF	FRA18328	G. Aunette	APCC VOILE SPORTIVE
OUI (SOUTHERN SUN)	FRA66	P. Mckenzie	Y C ST CYPRIEN
PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN (TV3)	FRA18338	E. Blouet	USCPCA RP
RAINBOW	GER4640	Bent Dietrich	GERMANY
REGION ILE DE FRANCE	FRA51	J. Pahun	UNCL
RUE-DU-PORT.COM (ESPOIR)	FRA2012	N. Pauchet	C N LORIENT
SILICON THEATRE SCENERY	NED523	R. Pronk	WKS
TOBAGO	FRA18323	H. Leduc	C V E ST QUENTIN
TOPAS	GER5373	H. Bruening	KYC
TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH	FRA83	F. Henry	C O Y C HYEROIS
TRIPLE P	NED6922	F. Khalegui Yazdi	PAYS BAS
TWINS 3	FRA18386	E. Maris	Y C PORQUEROLLES
VAN UDDEN TU DELFT	NED6555	G. Van Der Heÿder	GWV Elfhoever
WHITE SHARK	GBR30R	G. Gibbons	GRANDE BRETAGNE
ZUXU	EST381	Viisemann/Saraskin	ESTONIE