Asterix leads

Andy Nicholson reports from the opening day of the Mumm 30 World Championship in La Trinite

After a considerable postponement on the first day of racing at the Mumm 30 Worlds in La Trinite sur Mer it is the British boat Asterix that has taken up the lead with an impressive 2,2,3 scoreline in the 40 boat fleet.

Winner of the practice race and current European Champion Mean Machine was not on form and is languishing in 17th.

A light westerly settled on the course and three races were completed by 7pm, the race officials doing a good job with the minimum of fuss. Interestingly there were no general recalls and only the I flag was needed to keep everyone under control.

We are pleased with our efforts on Bent Dietrich’s Rainbow. We seem to have enough boat speed around the course to keep matched with the fleet and two good starts set us up for a 11 and a 7. The first start was not as flash as we really wanted but we dipped a lot of transoms and got out to the favoured right hand side of the course and got a 20th out of it.

Both Mean Machine and Barking Mad had everyone chattering before the start of the first race as they set asymmetric spinnakers in the eight knot breeze. It was only Barking Mad who continued to use the asymmetric on the first race. It seems that the fleet remain to be convinced that an asymmetric is the way to go.

Only two protests were heard with one boat being penalised four points by the jury for an infringement.

Louis Browne’s Asterix is certainly the class act on the race course. The team have been sailing together for a long time and have Quantum’s Dave Lenz on the main sheet and calling tactics is Olympic 49er Bronze Medallist Chris Draper. Dave Evans helms the boat with the owner doing the pit.

It is certainly not going to be a walkover for anybody however and there is considerable depth in the top portion of the fleet. In second place, and flying the flag for the French fleet is Bouygues Telecom with top match racer Mattieu Richard calling tactics. The super slick Monaco entry Dangerous But Fun is in third - Paolo Cian is in their crew. Top US boat in fourth is Deneen Demourkas’ Groovederci, with Hammish Pepper on tactics. We had a good look at the American boat on one mark rounding as we held slightly high at the top mark following a pile up - Groovederci coming in on port found themselves gifted a Mumm 30-sized space to leeward of us as the pile up cleared away.

Defending World Champion Richard Perini had a consistant if not specatacular day with a 4,18,9 to put them in eighth spot.

The winning tactic seemed to be able to get out to the right hand side of the course going upwind and then to sailing downwind in the small puffs rolling down the course. At one point we got the downhill leg spot on and were over our target boat speed with the true wind angle on 180 much to the bemusement of the boats around us!

All the races yesterday were two lap windward leeward courses. However the on the final run we round the port hand mark and have a short jib reach to the finish. We employed some aggressive match racing tactics on the second race to attempt to get the left hand side of two boats ahead of us - and therefore the inside berth on the final mark rounding. While creating a bit of a commotion we were successful in passing Kanati but not Topas.

Again today we have a postponement up but it is much sunnier and the forecast is for a building sea breeze. Another three races are scheduled.

Results after three races:

1. ASTERIX; GBR3093; Louis Browne 7 points (2,2,3)
2. BOUYGUES TELECOM; FRA18348; Pl. Berthet; 11 points (3,7,1)
3. DANGEROUS BUT FUN; MON2003; M. Perris; 14 points (1,8,5)
4. GROOVEDERCI; USA35; D. Demourkas 15 points (9,4,2)
5. TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH; FRA83; F. Henry; 16 points (9,4,2)
6. BARKING MAD; USA65; J. Richardson; 24 points (6,6, 12)
7. KANATI; GBR1430; C.R. Barr; 29 points (7, 11, 11)
8. FOREIGN AFFAIR; AUS6133; R. Perini; 31 points ( 4, 18, 9)
9. TOBAGO; FRA18323; H. Leduc; 34;
10. TWINS 3; FRA18386; E. Maris; 35;
11. RAINBOW; GER4640; Bent Dietrich; 37;
12. RUE-DU-PORT.COM; FRA2012; N. Pauchet; 45;
13. VAN UDDEN TU DELFT; NED6555; G. Van Der Heder; 54;
14. TECHNEAU PAYS GRANVILLAIS; FRA50; B. Charon; 56;
15. ALPES MARITIMES; FRA4; S. Chtounder; 56;
16. TOPAS; GER5373; H. Bruening; 58;
17. MEAN MACHINE; NED7179; P. de Ridder; 58;
18. LE PORT-BRED-REUNION; FRA974; M. Guessard; 64;
19. DEFI PARTAGE-MARSEILLE; FRA18322; T. Bouchard; 66;
20. AMEC SPIE SODIFAC ROUBAIX; FRA18336; E. Basset; 67;
21. OUI; FRA66; P. Mckenzie; 69;
22. ZUXU; EST381; Viisemann/Saraskin; 69;
23. COURRIER DUNKERQUE; FRA18349; G. Trentesaux; 70;
24. MOONSHINE; GBR1530R; Jack Kelly; 71;
25. COTES D'ARMOR; FRA22; V. Biarnes; 72;
26. MAMMY !; IRL50590; Foley Diarmuid; 74;
27. INEO SUEZ POLE I.R.S; BEL9330; P. Langlais; 74;
28. BELVEDERE-EBSCO; FRA 18339; V. Portugal; 75;
29. REGION ILE DE FRANCE; FRA51; J. Pahun; 77;
30. DUNKERQUE PLAISANCE; FRA18030; D. Souben; 77
31. NANTES ST-NAZAIRE 1; FRA18328; L. Sambron; 77;
32. FILENET; FRA18337; L. Corazza; 82;
33. TRIPLE P; NED6922; F. Khalegui Yazdi; 85;
34. FELICITY; GBR6330; H. Harwood/Nick Hartshorn; 90;
35. WHITE SHARK; GBR30R; G. Gibbons; 91;
36. PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN ; FRA18338; E. Blouet; 94;
37. EMINENCE; FRA18335; S. Brain; 106;
38. CARRY-CNTL-UNIMECA; FRA18306; C. Bauler; 108;
39. NANTES ST-NAZAIRE 2; FRA18327; G. Aunette; 109;
40. SILICON THEATRE SCENERY; NED523; R. Pronk; 114;