Misty start

Racing gets underway on the first day of Deauville International Week

Racing commenced in Deauville on Thursday for the six competing classes. Shifty in direction, the wind was a steady 10 knots or so (strengthening to 18 during the IRC circle) and the Race Committees for the three race areas were each able to run two races for the IRC, 747, J/80 and J/109, and three races for the Mumm 30 fleet.

With the flood tide carrying fleets over the line - and leftover lumpy sea from the previous day's stronger winds proved tough. Some of the locals from the Baie de Seine paid the price, including Le Havre boat Gibon (Mumm 30) and Racine (IRC3), penalised for jumping the gun on certain starts. All the big names scored highly in the various general rankings and there promises to be some close sparring matches at the top of classes as competitive as the J/80 and J/109. The only thing lacking for the racers was a little ray of sunshine to warm up an atmosphere saturated with humidity.

A small band of fog, rough seas on the race zone and shifty wind direction were the keynotes of this Deauville Race. The 12 competing Mumm 30’s benefited from three races to warm them up. Le Havre sailor Romain Gibon demonstrated his advantage by winning one race and scoring another second place. However, due to disqualification during the second race of the day he was relegated to 5th position. It was the crew from Saint Malo driven by François Lebourdais who took pole position this evening ahead of Dunkirk sailor Daniel Souben ( Courrier Dunkerque). The British sailor and title holder Louis Browne, is currently in fourth position: “We didn’t start the day as we would have liked as we had a very poor start in the first race. We managed to get back on track then with a couple of good races where we came third and fourth. The level of the fleet is very high!"

The learning process for the young crew from Dieppe Seine Maritime, 11th this evening, has only just begun. Patience, a sense of observation and humility are the watchwords to be respected throughout this formative week-end

Patrick Bot ( Ecole navale) found in Deauville a tough adversary in the J/80 fleet, in the shape of local sailor Philippe Szellos. The two of them share the number one spot after two very open races, which saw a number of changes in leader right across the course.
Patrick Bot said: “It was a tough battle with Philippe Szellos, but we are on equal points this evening. The sailing conditions were fairly difficult with a little chop and an irregular breeze. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens this week”.

The J/109s are very popular in England and it was no surprise that the Deauville sailors saw 12 craft displaying the Union Jack at the quayside of Bassin Morny. Le Havre sailor, Christophe Thébaud showed great verve against British sailor, Jeff Dakin. Racing on Bip Bip the French sailor ended up just astern of the English sailors Jeff Dakin ( Johnny Blue 2) and Matthew Boyle ( Shiva).