The Défi Petit Navire – Penn Ar Bed Finistère is open to multihulls more than 60 feet long, to the ORMA multihulls and to 50 foot multihulls, to speed prototypes, windsurf and kitesurf boards. Starting lines are open from 11h00 until 19h00 on 19th and 20th August, and again from 11h00 until 18h00 on 21st August. The event involves covering one section from a mark laid off Rosmeur (Douarnenez) and one of three marks - A, B or C laid 5 miles from the Rosmeur mark. Competitors can make any number of attempts within the time limit. Only the best time achieved by each competitor is retained for the final overall rankings.

« Last year, there was tons of wind for the Défi Petit Navire. We hit an average of 32.14 knots over the 9.2 miles of the course! The best wind angle is around 120° with a Solent jib up and with one reef in the main, in true win speed of amore than 20 knots. We actually started out pretty slowly at around 28-30 knots as there was less wind closer to the coast, then we picked up speed to around 39.7 knots. It was touch and go as you had to stay in lane so as not to obstruct the others.
This time round, the courses were shorter (down to five instead of nine miles) and there were three different options for choosing your angle in relation to the wind. If the wind decides to kick in (which is likely to be the case on Friday), we should be able to improve upon the time we set last year… What's more, we'll be able to make lots more attempts, probably even making a few runs in the squalls as a low pressure system passes over England. The best time should be attained on Friday. Conditions are likely to be ideal with a nor' westerly blow of over 20 knots. An interesting challenge ahead against Orange-2, Bruno Peyron's giant catamaran. »

Crew - Gitana 11

Frédéric Le Peutrec
Yann Guichard
Daniel Souben
Alexandre Quiblier
Jean-Baptiste Epron
François Denis
Christophe Lassègue