Peyron/Ravussin - victory with a race to spare

For today's four races at the Nokia Oops Cup event in Sopot, Poland

Bruno Peyron and the Stena Sovcomflot team won all four races in the grand prix series off Sopot, Poland this Sunday to became the winners of Nokia Oops Cup 2005 with a race to spare.

The Swedish/Russian team didn’t even have to win today’s races to secure their overall victory, but the duo of Bruno Peyron and Steve Ravussin know only one speed: Full on. The thousands of people who had shown up on the pier off Sopot got to see the trimarans in full action under a clear blue sky.

""It’s never as easy as it looks, but today we did all the right moves and Steve Ravussin really found the groove as tactician," said Peyron. "That’s also the reason Roger Nilson and I chose to work with Ravussin and his boat. It’s important to get a person on board that really knows the boat. When we only have a few weeks to prepare for these kind of races we never get the chance to get to know the boat as good as we would like to."

When the offshore race between Sopot and St. Petersburg, Russia starts on Tuesday the Swedish/Russian trimaran can parade home with the gold medal for the whole Nokia Oops Cup already in their pocket.

"I have tried to export the sport of multihull sailing and it has been my personal goal to reach outside the French boarders," says Peyron. "Now it finally looks like sailors in other countries have opened their eyes to this sport. We are eight different nationalities on Stena Sovcomflot."

HiQ with Klas Nylöf on the helm took second place after today’s races in Sopot, while Knut Frostad in Team Academy came third.

Results: Sopot City Race:
1) Stena Sovcomflot, Sweden/Russia, Bruno Peyron, 4 points
2) HiQ, Sweden, Klas Nylöf, 12 points
3) Academy, Norway, Knut Frostad, 12 points
4) TietoEnator, Finland, Thomas Johanson, 15 points
5) Nokia, Sweden, Magnus Olsson, 17 points
6) Bonduelle, Poland, Gotek Zibi, 26 points

Nokia Oops Cup after 10 of 11 races:
1) Stena Sovcomflot 15 points
2) Academy 23 points
3) HiQ 28,5 points
4) TietoEnator 40,5 points
5) Nokia 42,5 points
6) Bonduelle 51,5 points.