Munslow wins solo division

On leg one of the Mini class' Demi-Cle race to Ireland

A British boat has taken the first place in the singlehanded division on the 350 mile opening leg of the Mini class' Open 6.50 Demi-Cle race from Locmiquelic to Cork.

This three stage race started on Sunday and has both singlehanded and two handed divisions. 34 boats are taking part - a relatively modest turn-out for a Mini race - but what is impressive about this fleet is how international it is. Aside from the ubiquitous French, there are four British boats, one Irish, a Slovenian team, a Belgium, plus Finnish and Swedish boats. Considering that many budding solo sailors use this class as a stepping stone up to the Figaro and ultimately the Open 60 classes, this bodes well for the increased cosmopolitan nature of solo offshore racing in the future.

The two handed division was won convincingly by Frédéric Duthil and Cédric Gourmelen on board the Magnen-Nivelt design All Mer (265). The duo arrived in a time of two days one hour and 14 minutes - an impressive 12 hours ahead of second placed Morph'Eau sailed by Finns Pia L'Obry and Australian former Amer Sports Too crewwoman Liz Wardley.

First singlehander in was Plymouth's Ian Munslow sailing Smuk (326), while in 20th place Irish ex-BT Global Challenge crewman Cian McCarthy (right) was third in the singlehanded class sailing Tom Crean, his brand new Owen Clarke design.

McCarthy told madfor sailing that the light conditions hadn't suited his boat which has a lot of wetted surface area. But when the breeze picked up to 20 knots after rounded Pointe de PenMarch he had taken off. "I had a lot of boats in front of me and I was able to burn through them pretty quickly which was quite nice. At Ushant I think I was right up there."

The breeze died again en route to the Scillies, but fortunately picked up again as they passed Bishop Rock. "It was going really well. I got my Code Zero drawing nicely and I picked up a lot of ground again between the Bishop and Cork," said McCarthy.

For the Irishman the race has been primarily a test for his brand new boat. "On Monday I was trying out all my different sail combination to find out what worked and what would get me going. So I was quite relaxed about the result as I needed to find out more about the boat what worked and what didn't work".

Launched in the middle of May Tom Crean was supposed to have entered the Mini-Fastnet race, but McCarthy says they were still debugging the rig at the time. Now they have solved this the boat is going well. "She seems to go really nicely downwind. We had the prologue on Saturday in Lorient and we got a fourth in that which was good. I've got a really big daggerbaord and I seem to be able to get a lot of height. I seem to be able to match the Magnen boats which is really nice. That was the first time I'd sailed against any other Minis. It was nice to be up there without the boat even being fully tuned up".

The boats will set sail from Cork's East Ferry marina on Friday morning on the short leg to Baltimore. The forecast is for fresher conditions which should favour the wider Owen Clarke and Magnen designs. The final leg back to Lorient kicks off on Sunday night.

Pos	N°	Name	Skipper	Crew	Type	Pts	Time
1	265	ALL MER	DUTHIL Frédéric	GOURMELEN Cédric	PROTO	2	2d.01:14:00
2	316	MORPH'EAU	L'OBRY Pia	WARDLEY Liz	PROTO	4	2d.13:24:00
3	391	LGL-GARAGE LEDU	MORVAN Patrick	NOBLET Yvan	PROTO	6	2d.14:12:40
4	209	WAKE UP	LECHARPENTIER Bertrand	CAIGNEC Philippe	POGO	8
5	322	BLUE BOSSA	GUILLERM Gilles	FRANCOIS Boris	POGO	10
6	121	MENSURA BATI RENOV	LANCRY David	GELINEAU Bertrand	PROTO	12
7	388	DEMI-CLE SHIPCHANDLER	NIORT Yves	MERLIN Loïc	POGO	14
8	321	PURPLE HAZE	PESQUET-DEJEANTY Jean-Baptiste	GICQUEL Gildas	PROTO	16
9	276	KYSYMYSMERKKI	HUUSELA Ari	KIISKI Jari-Pekka	PROTO	18
10	168	Sté RAULT LE SERVICE Alimentaire	GUILLERM Fabrice	CALS Christian	POGO	20
11	373	YELLOW SUBMARINE	DARY Christophe	DARY Soizic	POGO	22
12	326	SMUK	MUNSLOW Ian		PROTO	24
13	269	SEMELLE DE VENT	RUBIO de TERAN Lionel		POGO	26
14	250	SIM INTERIM GRANVILLE	MAISONNEUVE Brieuc	RIOUX Antoine	POGO	28
15	33	AQUITAINE	HAJNSEK Kristian	MIHELIN Andraz	PROTO	30
16	318	THRANE&THRANE	RIOU Yann	DANJON Frédéric	POGO	32
17	335	FTH THIRARD	CHIVOT Barnabé	SOREL Erwan	PROTO	34
18	113	PRIM'AUTO	MARSCHAL Nicolas	MARSCHAL Jean	PROTO	36
19	193	DECEPTION	BUBB Nick	WALLER Nigel	PROTO	38
20	393	TOM CREAN	MC CARTHY Cian		PROTO	40
21	236	GROQUIK	THOMAS Sylvain	SIMON Pascal	POGO	42
22	207	LIBRAIRIE MARINE	VAN WEYNBERGH Denis	DE MESEL Peter	POGO	44
23	235	NEW DREAM	BEAUDART Davy	BLAVIER Bernard	POGO	46
24	218	JUDY	GOELTHALS Sébastien	DE BACKER Nicolas	POGO	48
25	273	GOUDURIX 2	VOLK LEONOVITCH Vincent	SAUTRET David	POGO	50
26	283	OBA OBA	CEYRAT Médéric	VINAY Eric	POGO	52
27	249	CALLIPYGE	SOURISSE Bernard		PROTO	54
28	237	CARPE DIEM	KERJAN Pierre	MEYER Fabien	POGO	56
-	78	SMETS	BLUY Xavier	EYDELY Franck	PROTO	70
-	100	OZONE	BLIN Raoul		PROTO	70	DNF
-	56	ATOMIC	BIRD James	KACZOR Adam	PROTO	70
-	177	AIRLINAIR	EUVERTE Charles	DUBUCQ Bertrand	POGO	70	DNF
-	304	SOJASUN	DUVAL Frédéric		PROTO	70	DNF
-	241	BLUE ONE	SIMPSON Stephen		PROTO	70