An unfathomable race zone!
For the second day of racing at the Kiel grand prix, the German sky didn’t prove to be the most hospitable to the nine crews still competing: numerous squalls and a shifty wind made the race zone tricky for everyone concerned. However, for the men on Gitana Extreme – LCF Rothschild Group, who climbed two places in the ranking, the results were positive.
Yesterday evening, the grib files led us to expect some windy races, but in reality it was quite another tale: “It was really difficult racing today! A fairly strong wind was forecast but this wasn’t the case on the water at all. The conditions were very shifty throughout the afternoon with some permanent wind rotations. You had to be on the look-out for the slightest movements on the race zone.” Observation was constant as the rain hammered down: “when it rains it’s a lot more difficult to see the gusts coming. However, everyone was in the same boat so to speak”.
Sailing cleanly and quietly snapping up any opportunities which presented themselves, Yann Guichard and his men gave themselves every chance of performing well: “It’s a good thing to find ourselves in 2nd place overall this evening. There is very little between Groupama 40 and Renaissance, respectively 3rd and 4th, which augurs well for an incredible battle on the water tomorrow.” Indeed, at the end of the six races today, the three catamarans are within just three points of each other! As regards leadership, the crew of Masirah is keeping up the pressure and retains the lead in this 4th event of the season, but Pete Cumming and his men still have it all to play for: “They have a good lead but there are still some races left to sail, including the famous last race which scores double!”
And so ends what has been a tiring day for both the bodies and the nerves aboard the catamaran equipped by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild: “There was a lot of contact racing in these short courses. We sail very close to each other and as the wind is capricious, you sometimes have to make decisions in just three seconds.” A night of rest beckons then so that the crew can gather up their strength for tomorrow’s racing!
Crew of Gitana Extreme - LCF Rothschild Group
Yann Guichard (skipper-helm)
Pierre Pennec (mainsail trimmer, tactics), Christophe Lassegue (headsail trimmer, control of manœuvres) and Hervé Cunningham (headsail trimmer, control of manœuvres)
Ranking on the second day (after 13 races)
1/ Oman Sail Masirah (Pete Cumming) – 104 points
2/
Gitana Extreme- LCF Rothschild Group (Yann GUICHARD) - 87 points
3/Groupama 40 (Franck Cammas) – 86 points
4/ Oman Sail Renaissance (Loïck Peyron) – 85 points
5/ Luna (Erik Maris) – 75 points
6/ iShares (Shirley Robertson) – 65 points
7/ BT (Nick Moloney) – 64 points
8/ Holmatro (Mitch Booth) – 62 points
9/ Wirsol Team German (Roland Gäbler) - 50 points
10/ Ecover (Mike Golding) – 8 points