Desjoyeaux moves ahead

After brrezy day two of Lorient trimaran grand prix PLUS photo gallery from Gilles Martin-Raget

After a light to moderate day yesterday, the breeze continued to build throughout the second day of the Lorient Grand Prix for the ORMA 60ft trimarans to the extent that the third and final race of the day had to be cancelled.

The first race began in 18 knots of southerly wind and a reasonably big sea. Marc Guillemot's Biscuits la Trinitaine got off to the best start while Thomas Coville's Sodebo was recalled. Lalou Roucayrol on board Banque Populaire was first to the top mark but was overhauled downwind by race one leader Franck Cammas' Groupama. Cammas proceeded to slowly extend until their race was scuppered by problems with their genniker. It was left to Michel Desjoyeaux Géant to take line honours from Alain Gautier's Foncia.

During the race a crewman on Steve Ravussin's Banque Covefi suffered a broken leg. he was disembarked and Ravussin was forced to retire from the race.

Race two began in 25 knots of breeze and a building sea. Alain Gautier on Foncia hit the line on the nail on starboard tack and managed to sustain his lead until the top mark, with Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire in hot pursuit just 10 seconds behind. In a display of the same form that he was showing at the latter end of last season Roucayrol overhauled Foncia on the first run and tenaciously held on to the lead for the rest of the race winning by a comfortable 52 second margin.

Foncia managed to squeeze out a fourth place despite sailing with a mainsail torn from luff to leech (their second mainsail tear in a week) - see photo on page 5. With their genniker replaced for this race Groupama claimed second but had lost the overall lead of the grand prix to Michel Desjoyeaux's immaculately sailed Géant, yet to finish lower than third in the entire series. Géant and Groupama have now pulled away on overall points from third placed Banque Populaire.

Genniker furling problems on Jean-Luc Nelias' highly rated Belgacom in the final race today forced her retirement dropping them down to sixth place overall. Meanwhile Groupama's shore crew will be busy tonight repairing a damage case of the foil in one of her outriggers which was caused the green and white trimaran to take on water today.

More breeze is expected tomorrow.

Provisional results after five races

1- Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant) 2+2+3+1+3 = 11 points
2-Franck Cammas (Groupama)1+1+2+8+2 = 14 points
3- Lalou Roucayrol (Banque Populaire) 5+6+6+4+1 = 22 points
4-Thomas Coville (Sodebo) 3+8+4+3+5= 23 points
5-Marc Guillemot (Biscuits La Trinitaine) 6+3+7+5+6 = 27 points
6-Jean-Luc Nélias (Belgacom) 4+5+1+6+12 (DNF) = 28 points
7- Alain Gautier (Foncia) 9+7+8+2+4 = 30 points
8- Jean Maurel (Bayer CropScience) 8+4+5+7+9 = 33 points
9- Laurent Bourgnon (Sopra Group) 10+10+11+9+7 = 47 points
10- Stève Ravussin (Banque Covefi) 7+9+9+12 (DNF)+12 (DNS) = 49 points
11- Lionel Lemonchois (Gitana) 11+11+10+10+8 = 50 points

SEE GILLES MARTIN-RAGET's PHOTO GALLERY FROM TODAY ON THE NEXT FOUR PAGES