Racing cancelled in Ireland this Saturday
The races originally scheduled for today have been cancelled and the Route des Princes’ fleet has headed back to Dùn Laoghaire’s marina following the capsize of Spindrift Racing in the first inshore race of the day. When the incident happened, weather conditions were very unstable. Indeed the anemometer showed a wind of around twenty knots, but the squalls encircling the race zone led to gusts in excess of thirty knots. The Gitana Team has given Yann Guichard’s team its full support in these tricky moments.

Three days after the finish of the offshore stage between Lisbon and Dublin, the crews were making no secret of their desire to get back into competition mode once again. This Saturday afternoon, the inshore races were set to begin with three races on the programme. The muscly weather conditions reigning in Dùn Laoghaire led the race committee to delay the start of the first race. In the end, it was shortly after 1330 GMT that the 70 foot trimarans set off. However, just moments after the starting gun fired in this leg, the MOD70 skippered by Yann Guichard capsized. 

On his return to the dock, Sébastien Josse described conditions on the water: “It was very shifty due to the big squalls circulating around the race zone. The wind increased from 20 to a little over 30 knots. As the race kicked off, some big gusts hit the water before the boats had a chance to power up. This is one of the most dangerous times in multihull sailing. With the trimaran not under full power, the effect of the big puffs of breeze has a great deal of influence on the boat’s trim. Aboard Edmond de Rothschild, given the conditions and the violence of the puffs, we decided to play it conservatively and sail as simply as possible in terms of the manoeuvring. However, conditions were still really full-on on the race zone and you’re always sailing close to the edge in such a scenario. It all happens in a matter of seconds…”

Some of the members of Gitana Team are currently on the water alongside Spindrift Racing’s men to lend them a helping hand with recovering the boat. The whole team are keen to give Yann Guichard and his team their full support and they wish the crew member injured during this capsize a very speedy recovery.

Tomorrow’s programme hasn’t yet been defined given that the weather forecast is still predicting muscly conditions.

Ranking for the Route des Princes (after the jury’s decision)
  1. Spindrift Racing (Yann Guichard) / 94 points
  2. Edmond de Rothschild (Sébastien Josse) / 88 points
  3. Musandam – Oman Air (Sidney Gavignet) / 84 points *
  4. Virbac Paprec 70 (Jean-Pierre Dick) / 66 points

 
* It is worth noting that Musandam – Oman Air has dropped four points since the finish of offshore 2 to Dublin after hampering Spindrift Racing’s progress during the start in Lisbon.

The inshore crew on Edmond de Rothschild

Sébastien Josse (skipper)
Charles Caudrelier (navigator) / Sébastien Col (tactician) / Thomas Rouxel (trimmer) / Olivier Douillard (trimmer) / Cyril Dardashti (grinder) / David Boileau (grinder) / Florent Chastel (bowman)

 

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