After 2450 miles of offshore racing, linking Valencia to Roscoff on the Bay of Morlaix via Lisbon, Dún Laoghaire and Plymouth and 16 inshore short course contests of which they won nine, Edmond de Rothschild are winners of the MOD70 class on the inaugural Route des Princes multihull race around Europe.
Finishing 11 minutes and 50 seconds behind them in second place was Oman Air-Musandam with Irish sailor Damian Foxall onboard. And taking third place across the finish line was Virbac-Paprec 70 (Jean-Pierre Dick) which completed the fourth stage of the Route des Princes at 14:51:23 UTC, just 15 minutes and 9 seconds behind the first MOD70 Edmond de Rothschild.
Starting on Saturday evening at 2000hrs in Plymouth Edmond de Rothschild had a 4pts lead after winning the final inshore series, that meant Oman Air-Musandam – ideally – needed to win the bonus and win the leg. They lead Edmond de Rothschild but were never able to extend and as they ran across the channel from Wolf Rock to the Roche Gautier mark, Josse's crew got to the east and were able to extend slightly.
And so as the MOD70's docked in the new Bloscon Marina in Roscoff the satisfaction was obvious on the face of skipper Josse, whilst Gavignet – correspondingly could not conceal his disappointment. The loss of small points here and there since the 9th June start, was Oman Air-Musandam's downfall, not least being taxed four points in the protest room in Dun Laoghaire from a relatively innocuous Lisbon start line incident with Spindrift. Josse's final satisfaction – leading a team stacked with offshore talent and less multihull experience– was to cap their overall victory with an offshore triumph.
Commenting after the finish Irish offshore sailor Damian Foxall stated 'we have to take the positives from the Route des Princes, the offshore wins in to Lisbon and Plymouth and the points rounding the Fastnet rock on the way to Dun Laoghaire. Looking forward to being there again in mid August for the biennial Fastnet Race.
