Skippers' point of view
Having spent three days training out in the Bay of Marseille, the seven trimarans are ready to get down to business on a highly technical course where strategy and crew cohesion will be extremely important. In the 4th Grand Prix Marseille Métropole, Gitana 11 may well be able to shake Groupama-2's domination. Gitana X is there to confirm the progress she made in Calvi. A word from the skippers.
Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (Gitana X) :

« Curiously enough, we are not quite so ease in the run-up to this Grand Prix de Marseille as we were for Corsican. Perhaps we have just put ourselves under a little more pressure than we did in Calvi. We were getting the feel of what level we were at in Corsica and assessing the boat's progress after the winter refit. There is also the wind factor as we have sailed every day since Monday in a 12 to 18 knot breeze, precisely the wind range which requires crew coordination to be spot on. We've still got quite a bit of work to do on our manoeuvres and in rounding the marks. We've improved a lot since Monday but we've not got it perfect yet. There have been a couple of changes up on deck too, swopping the trimmer and pitman around. Caroline Vieille is on the sheets for tacking and gybing and Antoine Carpentier is now foredeck / N°2 – a very physical job. He has to take care of the dagger board, mast angle, foils … Jochen Krauth has fitted in perfectly to the crew of Gitana X since La Giraglia. He's already had fair bit of multihull experience with Frédéric Le Peutrec, apart from his windsurfing achievements. »

Frédéric Le Peutrec (Gitana 11) :

« We've had a great three days with thermal breezes : Gitana 11 and her crew are fine. We've often been right on the heels of Groupama-2. We've got to try and nab her once and for all now ! At least on one round, and why not even several … We've greatly improved the way we run things on board since the Grand Prix de Calvi. Our speed is in place thanks to the ideal conditions which should continue for the next couple of days. SE 10-18 knots, perfect for this type of boat as we sail fast. These trimarans are highly reactive and tactical choices are important, manœuvres have to be fluid. Today we opted for the port tack in the first training race and even though we had three boats behind us at the start, we put on the pressure straight away and latched onto good windshift. Franck Cammas was the only one to have done a good job in setting off left. But he did a really fast tack just off our bows at the windward mark ! His boat sails like no other… but he's not going to pull off things like that each and every time. »

Trimarans - Grand Prix de Marseille Métropole

Foncia : Armel Le Cléac'h
Banque Populaire : Pascal Bidegorry
Géant : Michel Desjoyeaux
Gitana X : Thierry Duprey du Vorsent
Gitana 11 : Frédéric Le Peutrec
Groupama-2 : Franck Cammas
TIM-Progetto Italia : Giovanni Soldini

Crew - Gitana 11

Frédéric Le Peutrec (skipper), Yann Guichard (tactician), Baron Benjamin de Rothschild (performer-navigator), Jean-Baptiste Levaillant (trimmer), Daniel Souben (trimmer), Jean-Baptiste Epron (mainsheet), Alex Quiblier (wincher), Loïc Le Mignon (wincher), Antoine Mermod (pit), François Denis (foredeck / n°2), Christophe Lassègue (bowman / n°1)

Crew - Gitana X

Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (skipper-helm), Erwan Le Roux (tactician), Mayeul Riffet (pit-navigator), Jochen Krauth (trimmer), Mathieu Tatibouët (mainsheet), Yann Le Govic (mainsheet), Jacques Guichard (trimmer), Caroline Vieille (trimmer), Xavier Dagault (wincher), Antoine Carpentier (foredeck / n°2), Léopold Lucet (bowman / n°1)


Provisional ranking ORMA Multihull Championship

After the IB Group Challenge (weighting : 3), the Grand Prix de Corse (weighting : 1) and La Giraglia Rolex Cup (weighting : 0.5) :

1-Pascal Bidégorry (Banque Populaire) 5 points (0+3+2)
2-Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant) 11,5 points (6+4+1,5)
3-Frédéric Le Peutrec (Gitana 11) 14,5 points (9+2+3,5)
4-Armel Le Cléac'h (Foncia) 20 points (12+7+1)
5-Franck Cammas (Groupama-2) 21 points (21+0+0)
6-Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (Gitana X) 22,5 points (15+5+2,5)
7-Giovanni Soldini (TIM-Progetto Italia) 60 points (51+6+3)
8ex-Thomas Coville (Sodebo) 78 points (51+18+9)
8ex-Yvan Bourgnon (Brossard) 78 points (51+18+9)

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