Two Sebs better than one

Edmond de Rothschild tops the Route des Princes inshore but Oman Air-Musandam still ahead overall

Edmond de Rothschild repeated the winning ways that she established around the inshore race tracks in Valencia last weekend when they completed a similar success today in the Route des Prince’s Lisbon’s six race inshore series.

Skipper Sébastien Josse, tactician Seb Col and navigator Charles Caudrelier and their crew again proved to be a step ahead of their MOD70 opposition, consistently slicker in their boathandling, tactics and often their sheer boat speed.

In the puffy northerly breeze, blowing off the Lisbon cityfront across the Tagus river, the sunny conditions were great for spectators on the land and on the water, but the changes of wind direction and pressure ensured there was never a dull moment for the ‘brains trusts’ trying to make best use of these changes, nor for the trimmers and grinders who were always working to their maximum. It proved a fabulous display of the MOD70’s potency as grand prix inshore racing machines as well their proven abilities as offshore and ocean racing machines.

Edmond de Rothschild set the bar high when they convincingly won the first race of the day, race 4 of the series. They were comfortably ahead by the end of the first round of the two laps race. But it was also their ability to come back and return strong, counting results which proved as valuable. They were completely flat footed off the line in the second race when all of their three rivals hared off the line neck and neck to the first turn. But they sailed a great second beat, using a beneficial shift from the leeward gate to get back into contention, going on to finish third ahead of Virbac-Paprec 70.

Seb Josse commented: "We are very happy. It feels good on the boat, we are in phase with each other. This reflects a lot of the work that we put in last year and the winter and it is beginning to pay off, so it's really great! Now we will have to see if we can do the same on an offshore race. Normally, with the crew we have, we should deliver more offshore than in buoys racing, so we'll try to keep this momentum into the next offshore. Today we have achieved in terms of points exactly the same as yesterday."

After winning Race 5, Sidney Gavignet’s Oman Air-Musandam were on target for second overall in Lisbon, but they slumped to a fourth place finish in the final contest, just one lap which was won by Spindrift – leaving them to third, one place better than in Spain.

“It feels very good,” Gavignet said. “I’m very happy with how this team is bonding. We knew in Valencia that we were making mistakes but had the potential to do better and that is still the case – we are still learning but we are learning from our mistakes.

“The atmosphere on board was very good. It is very positive. I am looking more at our progress than at the results and I can say we are definitely making progress.”

Gavignet’s team will leave Portugal tomorrow for Leg 2 to Dun Laoghaire, Ireland via the Fastnet Rock, with their points lead on the Route des Princes rankings still intact, but now only two points up on Edmond de Rothschild.

Good start for Ireland-bound Multi 50s!

With their start advanced due to the forecast for strong winds and big seas at Cape Finisterre on Monday, the Multi50 fleet were given perfect conditions for the start of their 900 miles passage to Dun Laoghaire on Ireland’s Dublin Bay.

With the wind blowing out of the north at between 12 and 18 knots, the Multi50s made an eight miles loop between the historic old town waterfront at the Praca do Comericio and a buoy to the west of the 25th April bridge, returning back to the turning gate before heading west at speed towards the first of their two bonus points scoring marks.

First to Cascais, collecting the bonus point, some 41 minutes later was Yves Le Blevec’s Actual. The Multi50s are expected to spend their first night at sea tacking upwind into a 15 knot northerly, and so due to make Cape Finisterre early tomorrow.

Their amended course now takes them to a second points scoring mark at Chausse de Sein to the west of Britanny’s Point du Raz.

Multi 50 ranking at C1 buoy southwest of Cascais: 1. Actual (Yves Le Blévec) at 17h41 2. FenêtréA-Cardinal (Erwan Le Roux) at 17h44 3. Arkema - Aquitaine (Lalou Roucayrol) at 17:45 4. Rennes - Saint-Malo (Gilles Lamiré) at 18:25.

Inshore race: 1. Edmond de Rothschild, 10 pts 2. Spindrift, 8 pts 3. Musandam Oman Air, 6 pts 4. Virbac-Paprec 70, 4 pts.

Provisional overall standings after Lisbon inshores: 1. Musandam Oman Air (Sidney Gavignet) 54 pts 2. Edmond de Rothschild, 52 pts 3. Spindrift (Yann Guichard) 8 pts 4. Virbac-Paprec 70 (Jean-Pierre Dick), 38 pts

Photos by Mark Lloyd / www.lloydimages.com