Ecover takes inaugural Prologue

The Transat Jacques Vabre's first ever Renault prologue events were sailed yesterday

With a week to go until the duel starts of the Transat Jacques Vabre, so for the first time a prologue round the cans event off Le Havre was held yesterday among the Open 60s and Open 50s for the benefit of spectators, sponsors and press.

The format of the Open 50 and Open 60 Monohull Renault Prologues was unusual with the lowest two finishers being knocked out after each race, culminating in a match race.

First up was the Open 50 Monohull Renault Prologue. Racing began at 1005hrs in an 8 knot breeze, with Artforms, skippered by Kip Stone and the boat's designer Merfyn Owen, taking the best start on the 5 mile windward-leeward course.

Six Open 50s battled it out on the first round, with Polarity Solo, skippered by Paul Metcalf annd Ryan Finn and Gryphon Solo, skippered by Joe Harris & Josh Hall, eliminated at the end. In the next race Gryphon Solo was neck and neck with the leader Artforms, but the former made a course error and were disqualified. In addition to Gryphon Solo knocked out after this race was Adecco-Etoile Horizon, skippered by Bob Escoffier and Gérard Faye.

This left the final between Défi Vendéen and Vedette de Bréhat, Jean François Durand and Karen Leibovici v Servane Escoffier and Bertrand de Broc's teams. After two hours of racing, Servane Escoffier and Bertrand de Broc on Vedette de Bréhat came through victorious in the first ever Renault Prologue for the Open 50 monohulls, winning a Renault Kangoo car as their support vehicle for the 2006 season.



The weather gods were smiling over Le Havre, for by the afternoon the wind had picked up to 15 knots from the SSE and the sun finally appeared.

After a short delay, the first race saw the 12 Open 60s get underway at 1420hrs again on a 5 mile windward-leeward course. Jean-Pierre Dick's Virbac-Paprec was first off the line, followed by Mike Golding's Ecover and Bernard Stamm's Around Alone winner, Cheminées Poujoulat. At the end of this first race Ecover was leading from Jean le Cam on Bonduelle and Virbac-PaprecThe first two boats to be eliminated were Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty's new Artech 60 (more on this boat next week) and Herve Laurent's UUDS (once upon a time Christophe Auguin's Vendee Globe and BOC Challenge winner Sceta Calberson/ Geodis).

In the second race, Brazilian Walter Antunes new Lavranos-designed Open 60 Galileo ( click here to read more), Marc Thiercelin's Proform, Joe Seeten's former Arcelor Dunkerque, now called Mare Verticale and Anne Liardet and Miranda Merron's Roxy were knocked out leaving Bonduelle, Skandia, Cheminées Poujoulat, Sill et Véolia, Virbac-Paprec and Ecover.

After the penultimate race the final ended up between Virbac-Paprec and Ecover.

This proved to be a nail biter as on the final leg, Virbac-Paprec was ahead, but her crew were unable to unfurl their gennaker fast enough and were pipped at the post by Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre's team.



"It was a very tough race for the crews on all the boats because the boats are not designed to do this kind of intensive manoeuvring," said Golding afterwards. "On the last leg, Virbac-Paprec were just ahead, then they had a twist in their code 5 which allowed us to catch and overtake them and to finish about 200 yards ahead of them! It has been a very close and tight race and it gives an idea of what to expect during the Transat Jacques Vabre.”

The prologue was an opportunity for the two handed TJV crews to invite on board VIPs, guest, sponsors and press. Joining Golding and Wavre were North Sails France manager Bruno Dubois plus the Eclover shore team, Graham Tourell and Ian McCabe.

“Today has been a great opportunity for Dominique and I to look at all the sails we will need for the Transat Jacques Vabre," said Golding. "This is great for Dominique who is still relatively new to the boat plus, we were joined by Bruno Dubois who has an intimate knowledge as the designer of the sail wardrobe on Ecover.”

An equivalent Renault Prologue event for the 60ft and 50ft class multihulls was due to be sailed today (Sunday). However in the conditions Race Director Jean Maurel has been forced to can the event due to 25-30 knots of wind from the south in the Baie du Seine, and a choppy sea. Maurel, says he doesn't want to risk the boats sailing in these conditions with just one week to go before their start of the Transat Jacques Vabre proper.