Strong in Alicante

Bribon, now the oldest TP52 in the fleet once again wins the Audi MediCup's Alicante practice race

Bribon proved they may yet be the boat to beat in Alicante when they won today's practice race.

Runners up for the 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit, Bribon proved their magical Alicante mojo may still be intact despite now being the oldest boat on this year’s TP52 Series. In 2007 Bribon won her maiden regatta to take the City of Alicante Trophy just days after being completed, built in near to record time, winning by a single point. And last year it was only one point which separated Bribon from retaining the Alicante trophy, finishing second to Mean Machine.

With French double Olympic medallist Thierry Peponnet now steering, Bribon - which is completely unaltered since last season - led at every mark of today’s curtain-raising practice race and crossed the finish line well clear of Portugal’s second-placed Bigamist 7, Pedro Mendonca’s latest TP52 which last year competed as Platoon powered by Team Germany.

The hazy conditions over Alicante denied any chance of the light, and times shifty and patchy breeze building to anything meaningful. Rarely did the wind top nine knots, but it was always enough for Bribon to keep the 12 boat TP52 fleet trailing behind. The typically understated Peponnet confessed later that part of their winning move, starting off the pin end, was as much as result of snaring a plastic bag around their keel two and a half minutes before the start gun.

“ This has been a good debut for me," said the Frenchman. "We are happy with the atmosphere on board. It is pretty relaxed but at the same time we are very focused. Today's result is due to several things, just 2,30 minutes before the start we caught a plastic bag with the keel, so we had to completely stop the boat to take it out. In fact we wanted to start closer to the committee boat, but we haven't been able to do that and were closer to the buoy instead.

They crossed the fleet mid-way up the first beat, gaining a steady advantage after they tacked, and were more than 30 seconds clear as they lead away from the windward mark.

Peponnet continued: “Ross [MacDonald]'s tactics were excellent, who together with Marcel [van Triest] predicted the evolution of the wind, and we chose the right time to cross the fleet, and to take the right side at the moment where the pressure came back. We have a crew which knows each other very well, and know how to trim and place the boat in relation to the wind pressure. With our boat, even if it's older, we can gain more advantage from the wind.”

Alicante has usually favoured smart sailing and today the Portuguese team on Bigamist 7, proved their hard work over recent weeks of training off Cascais, including local Lisbon races, ensures their crew work is slick enough to be a threat here.

Pedro Medonca, owner and navigator on Bigamist 7 commented: “ It was a great training race. The boat is a bit faster this year, the tactics we chose today were good and we managed to maintain the second place. We didn't let the gap with Bribon get bigger. We have trained a lot really this year already, we have worked on our jibes, the boat handling and among the crew members we have someone who knows the boat very well from last year Mikkel Rosberg. We also have a new Italian guy trimming the main and overall the crew gets along well.”

Finishing fifth Audi MedCup Champions Quantum Racing (USA) had a sharp reminder that there will be no chance of resting on their laurels, not least with three new boats this season to contend with. Emirates Team New Zealand with their new Botin Carkeek design may have won the start cleanly with a well timed and executed collaboration between helm Dean Barker (NZL), navigator Kevin Hall (USA) and tactician Ray Davies (NZL), but they had to work hard to rescue a third place.

Grant Dalton CEO is sailing on board as mast man: “In theory we have been working full time this year but because the America's Cup is still in court that means that the guys haven't got a lot of work other than this. The first time we have been out together was in Auckland at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, and we sailed a little bit on the boat together but not so much. But, it's not really hard to get the combinations going because we know each other very well, we speak the same language, understand each other's jokes, and we have sailed together through the America's Cup so getting the crew to actually go together is very simple. Some of us have been sailing together forever!”

Meanwhile preparations continued for the GP42 Series fleet who have their Practice Race tomorrow. The Audi MedCup village for the City of Alicante Trophy regatta was officially opened to the public this afternoon with Sonia Castedo, the Mayoress of Alicante, footballer Marco Senna who was a member of Spain Euro 2008 championship winning team, Terry Hutchinson (USA), skipper of the Audi MedCup champions Quantum Racing (USA), Ignacio Triay (ESP) of the Audi Med Cup Circuit and Bribon (ESP) and Jaime Yllera (ESP) the President of the TP52 Med Fleet among the key guests and VIP’s.

Results:

1. Bribon (ESP)
2. Bigamist 7 (POR)
3. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)
4. Matador (ARG)
5. Quantum Racing (USA)

More photos on the following pages...