40 Degrees at the Petit Navire

Miranda Merron reports on her first Class 40 event of the season

40 Degrees has just completed her first event of the season, racing in the Grand Prix Petit Navire, in the Bay of Douarnenez, France. The event itself runs over two weeks for different classes, with each having a few days racing. In our slot, there were 10 Class 40s, as well as a few Open 60s and Mini 6.50s (the others being Dragons and kite surfers).

The first two days of racing consisted of speed runs over a set course of three miles for all three open classes. Boats can have as many runs as they want between 1100 and 1730. The weather was gorgeous, and though the orientation of the course was more downwind than reaching, and the wind was quite shifty, it provided good speed training. 40 Degrees placed second and third over the two days.

The next three days were dedicated to coastal races. First on the menu was a 38 nautical mile race, and after a light start, three boats, including 40 Degrees, managed to get to the favoured side of the course, and were never threatened by the rest of the fleet. 40 Degrees finished in third place.

On the second day (55 nautical miles), the wind was very shifty and up and down in the rain clouds, which eventually cleared to sunshine and 15-20 knots westerly wind. On 40 Degrees, we had an issue with the gennaker, which lost us some time, and meant that we didn’t have the right sail configuration on a couple of legs. Nevertheless, we finished sixth, seconds behind the fifth placed boat. Unfortunately, the last day of racing was cancelled due to the weather.

40 Degrees finished 4th overall, only one point off third. It has been a good warm-up event, and interesting to test ourselves against other boats and crews. We have won several bottles of wine and Petit Navire goodies (fish) based on the results of the first three days. We plan to come and compete in this highly enjoyable event again!

The crew were: Peter Harding, Miranda Merron, Alex Sizer and Anne Liardet