Yellow streak first

Jean le Cam and Bonduelle victorious in 1000 Milles de Calais

Positions at 0540GMT

Pos	Boat	Lat	Long	SOG	COG	DTF	DTL
1	BONDUELLE	51 03.08' N	1 26.96' E	7.2	101	9.3	0
2	ECOVER	50 51.76' N	0 54.12' E	9.5	34	36.3	27
3	VIRBAC	50 21.52' N	1 39.60' W	4.3	82	139.8	130.5
4	PRB	50 18.80' N	2 13.28' W	9.4	88	159.1	149.8
5	ARCELOR DUNKERQUE	50 15.04' N	2 15.88' W	10.9	84	165.7	156.4

At 06:24:38GMT this morning after 4 days, 14 hours 43 minutes and 38 seconds at sea, Jean le Cam's brand new Open 60, Bonduelle crossed the finish line first in the 1000 Milles de Calais sailing in a 10 knot southwesterly breeze.

Launched just over a month ago this was the race debut for the three time Solitaire du Figaro winner's yellow flier who was sailing with Ronan Le Goff, Pascal Dourlen, Yann Regniau and Belgian sailor Grégoire Metz as his crew. Le Cam and his crew will receive 12,600 Euros prize money for their victory.

Having match raced Mike Golding's team on Ecover tack for tack all the way to the Fastnet Rock, Bonduelle was able to get ahead when she headed south from the Rock in pressure while the British boat flounders to the east. Le Cam's yellow streak was able to put 20 miles on Ecover at that time a lead which with minor fluctuations she maintained sailing back to Land's End up the Channel and across from Dover to Calais. The indication is that the new Marc Lombard design and Ecover are very evenly matched in their boat speed.

"We’re obviously delighted with our performance - particularly after our recent launch," commented le Cam. "Unlike the rest of the fleet our sails were the ones we’re going to use for the Vendée Globe so it was interesting to see how well we did. The boat’s in great shape and we've absolutely no worries aboard so I’m off tomorrow to do the 750 mile qualifier for The Transat. All this is just the beginning and it augers very well for the future...”