Stepping down onto the pontoon, Fred announced that he was really pleased with the way the boat had handled during the 3 and a half day sail. He thanked his shore crew for their remarkable preparation carried out over the past three months during which the boat's potential has continued to develop.

On this 1 000 mile long course in the form of a triangle running from La Trinité sur Mer in southern Brittany  down to the north-west tip of Spain and the south-west tip of the Cornish coast of England, Fred sailed in a wide range of conditions covering various points of sail and speed, without ever coming across the extreme conditions met by Marc, skipper of Gitana X the week before.

Gitana 11 was therefore tested over an 82-hour period in differing sailing configurations to the great satisfaction of her skipper who admits having an « exceptional trimaran ». 

After having had a short rest this morning, Fred is back on board to helm Gitana 11 at the start of this afternoon to join Gitana X for a final series of training sessions with the Pôle Finistère Course au Large, before the first Grand Prix in the season which starts on Friday and will run for three days in Trinité sur Mer.

Once this first meeting of the ORMA 2004 calendar is over, Fred and Marc who have got their qualifying passages out of the way will have a little more than one month to put Gitana 11 and Gitana X into solo configuration solo and fine-tune their preparation for The Transat.