Ruyant wins practice race

Gearing up for the Class 40 World Championship

The Class 40 World Championship set sail today in Gijon, Spain with a practice race held in 8-10 knot northwesterwinds.

13 boats took part in the practice race, held over a 2 mile windward-leeward. Jean-Edouard Criquioche had to stay in the port due to an absent crew, a victim of the French strikes, while Louis Burton has yet to arrive.

Thomas Ruyant was first around every buoy on Destination Dunkerque, followed by Gonzalo Botin on Tales and Thierry Bouchard on Mistral Loisirs-Pôle Santé Elior. This order remaind unchanged throughout the whole race.

Defending world champion Ned Collier-Wakefield on Concise 2 withdrew from the regatta shortly after the start. Botin meanwhile stayed at sea after the regatta to continue his tuning.

Two races are planned for tomorrow, starting at midday.

“We are definitely happy about winning this race, even though it doesn’t count," said Ruyant. "The boat is going well. We managed to keep up the speed and our tactic and strategic unit worked well. I’m taking care of the boat, Yann Riou does the navigation and Tanguy Leglatin does the tactic… This was an overall success even though we messed up a couple of manoeuvres. The sailing conditions were very good and I hope they are going to stay this way. There are some really good boats and it’s going to be tight. I’m just sorry that the English team on Concise 2 didn’t stay until the end.”

Thierry Bouchard added: “We are quite happy about the result, especially since our boat wasn’t designed for this type of inshore racing. The ultimate goal is the Route du Rhum. Anyway the boat is going well and although it only arrived two days ago we managed to get a good start and finsh well. This was a good practice and we were able to see which boats are good. We will be there for it tomorrow, fighting against Destination Dunkerque, Concise 2 – which is an inshore type boat –, Vecteur Plus… It’s going to be very interesting.”

Practice Race results 22 July 2010:
1. FRA88 – DESTINATION DUNKERQUE (Thomas Ruyant)
2. ESP65 – TALES (Gonzalo Botin)
3. FRA83 – MISTRAL LOISIRS-POLE SANTÉ ELIOR (Thierry Bouchard)
4. GER66 – RED (Mathias Mueller)
5. SMR84 – VECTEUR PLUS (Sam Manuard)
6. RSA23 – PHESHEYA RACING (Nick Leggatt)
7. NED75 – MOON PALACE (Avriaan Van Oond)
8. FRA91 – KOGANE (Patrice Bougard)
9. GBR90 – 40 DEGREES (Peter Harding)
10. FRA26 – MARIE TOIT-CAEN LA MER (Marc Lepesqueux)
11. FRA20 – AUX FILLES DE L’EAU (Anna Corbella)
12. FRA56 – NEURODON.FR/ESPOIR EN TETE (Christian Chardonnal)
DNC – SPIRIT OF FILLE DE FEU (Louis Burton) / GROUPE PICOTY (Jean-Edouard Criquioche) / CONCISE 2 (Ned Collier Wakefield)