Race
Report
The French 400
Our
friend Lyn Hines is back with a new report and pics. Enjoy.
The
rest of Europe is enjoying nice weather except for bay in Brest, France,
where the 400 sportboats put in their first day of rainy weather sailing,
in a 1-2 knot current and 7-10 knots of wind.
This
is the annual running of the French Naval College Grand Prix, the brainchild
of Alain Daoulas, former Open 7.50 sailor and sail designer. This regatta
is different in that it is based in a true military installation with
naval officers, cadets, scuba divers and helicopters everywhere.
This
year brings competitors from Spain, England, Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and France to sail on a bay with ever changing tidal streams
and variable weather. There are two courses; one with J-80s (40), Open
7.50 (5) Melges 24, and 4 Longtze Premiers (a new sportboat class). The
second race area includes the Mach, 747 One Design, and Open 5.70 with
some 39 boats.
The
race committee was happy to get in 4 races today, but the look on most
crews faces was like: “this isn’t what it said in the brochure…..”
or “our skipper lied to us….”.
Being
one of the biggest gatherings of European sportboats, the leeward mark
roundings were a little noisy, but it might have had more to due to the
weather, trying to make soaked spinnakers fly, strong current and being
soaked.
