Gitana : écurie de course au large fondée par le Baron Benjamin de Rothschild

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Kiel, a resumption of hostilities!

The summer break is drawing to a close for the teams in the iShares Cup 2009. Three weeks after the English stage of the circuit, which took place at the start of August on the Isle of Wight, Yann Guichard and his rivals are getting back down to business! The tour of Europe continues for the 40 foot one designs and in a few days time, from 28th to 30th August, the ten competing crews will compete in the fourth meeting of the season in Germany.

We left the crew of Gitana Extreme – LCF Rothschild Group at the start of August with a second place in Cowes following a merciless battle on the waters of the Solent, resulting in Yann Guichard and his crew being ideally placed for the next stage in the championship. Indeed, currently second in the iShares Cup, just one point behind the men on Oman Sail Masirah, the catamaran equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild is certainly very much in the running for the 2009 title as Yann Guichard highlights in his mid-season analysis: “After racing three events out of the six listed in the race programme, we are really very happy with our position. We are right in the thick of the action and I think today that there are still three boats with a chance of snatching the top spot. The rostrum is gradually taking shape but for the time being it is impossible to predict the final order given the standard of the class and the fact that there are so few points between us.”

For the second year running, the city of Kiel is to form part of the Extreme 40 schedule. As was the case in Hyères that hosted the second stage of the 2009 circuit, the German harbour on the Baltic coast is one of the primary destinations of Olympic Sailing with its famous Kieler Woche, which is a competition held each June, gathering together the cream of world Olympics. Boosted by their years of experience on the Tornado, Yann Guichard and his tactician Pierre Pennec know Kiel well. However, this fact is more anecdotal than advantageous as the Extreme 40 races will be run considerably closer to the heart of the town than those previously contested in the Tornado class.

Despite all this, the race zone this weekend certainly has an appeal for the crew of Gitana Extreme – LCF Rothschild Group, who were able to really show what they were made when they led proceedings during the first stage of the competition in Venice: “The last three events, and hence that hosted in Kiel, will be disputed on closed race zones. As such we can expect shifty winds in terms of direction and intensity, which opens things up but could make racing particularly tricky. My crew really like such conditions though!” explains Yann Guichard.

As regards the line-up, this fourth stage will be marked by a switch of competitors with the arrival of a new adversary and the departure of one of the strong teams from this 2009 circuit. Indeed the German crew of “Wirsol Team German Kiel.Sailing City” will be joining the event on their home waters, whilst the competition will also see the definitive withdrawal of Team BMW Oracle, as James Spithill’s crew fulfil prior engagements.

Crew of Gitana Extreme - LCF Rothschild Group
Yann Guichard (skipper-helm)
Pierre Pennec (mainsail traveller trimmer, tactics), Christophe Lassegue (headsail trimmer, control of manœuvres) and Hervé Cunningham (headsail trimmer, control of manœuvres)

Provisional championship ranking (after three events)
1/ Oman Sail Masirah – 27 points (4th, 1st, 1st)
2/ Gitana Extreme- LCF Rothschild Group – 26 points (1st, 4th, 2nd)
3/Oman Sail Renaissance – 24 points (3rd, 3rd, 3rd)
4/ BMW Oracle – 18 points (2nd, 2nd, DNC)
5/ Groupama 40 – 17 points (5th, 5th, 6th)
6/ BT – 17 points (6th, 6th, 4th)
7/ iShares – 12 points (9th, 7th, 5th)
8/ Luna – 10 points (7th, 9th, 7th)
9/ Holmatro – 9 points (8th, 8th, 8th)
10/ Ecover – 4 points (10th, 10th, 9th)