The start of the fifth edition of the Drheam Cup/Grand Prix de France au Large was given on Monday 15 July at 16:30 in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in a steady south-easterly breeze. On the agenda for the 70 boats taking part, two courses of 630 and 490 miles respectivly to La Trinité-sur-Mer, with varied conditions and great battles in store in the different classes.
After a weekend with virtually no wind, it picked up again on Monday in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin harbour, with a brisk 15-knot south-easterly breeze, kicking off the fifth edition of the Drheam Cup in ideal conditions.
The Multi 2000s, Class40s and the only large monohull entered (Akela) crossed the start line at 16:30 in front of Le Becquet, heading for an offset buoy and the Urville mark, which was first passed by the MOD70 Drekan Energy (Eric Defert) ahead of the ORC 50 GDD (Bruno Jacob) and the 50-foot trimaran Rayon Vert (Oren Nataf). Fifteen minutes later, the IRC double-handed and crewed boats, the Sun Fast 30 One Design class and classic yacht Merry Dancer, a 1938 Fife design, set off.
The agenda for the first few hours of racing? “A fast crossing of the English Channel with 20-25 knots of wind, which will soon shift the west,” said replies Christian Dumard, the race’s weather consultant. After that, it’s upwind sailing in easing winds along the English coast and a very uncertain finish in light airs. In these conditions, the fastest boat, Eric Defert's MOD70 Drekan Energy, is expected to reach La Trinité-sur-Mer after around a day and a half at sea, with the bulk of the fleet between Thursday 18 and Saturday 20 July.
As he left the pontoon at Port Chantereyne, Xavier Macaire, defending Class40 winner on Groupe Snef, was expecting a fairly tactical race over the 630-mile Class40 course: “We’re going to have to make the most of Channel crossing on a beam reach, which is going to be the most fun part of the race, because after that, we’re going to have a lot of upwind sailing, so not as many fast, high-intensity runs, but a lot of transitions and changes in the weather systems. We’re going to have to be focused, reactive and opportunistic.”
On paper, Groupe Snef, one of the three scows in the race with Viranga (Emmanuel Hamez) and Swift (Jack Trigger), appears to be the favourite in Class40, with a wide open game for the ‘pointy’ boats. “We are going to see a good battle between the pointy boats, with very unusual weather conditions,” said Alexandre Legallais (TrimControl). “Our boat is one of the oldest of the older boats, we will be happy with a top-three finish.”
A France/England match
Over the 490-mile course, the battle promises to be particularly intense in the two most represented categories, IRC two-handed (28 boats) and IRC crewed (16).
The two-handed class, featuring a large British contingent, includes 15 duos taking part in the UK Double Handed Offshore Series, launched in the UK to promote double-handed racing. The Drheam Cup is the second of the two legs of the IRC Two-Handed Offshore European Championship, after Cowes–Dinard.
“We know that the French are very good at short-handed racing, but we’re working really hard in Great Britain to progress and catch up,” said Kate Cope, co-director of the circuit and entered on the Sun Fast 3200 Purple Mist with UK-based Irish sailor Conor Corson. “I think we’ve reached an excellent level and this race will be a good test for us. My aim is for one of our 15 boats to beat the French!”
Among the best British chances are Red Ruby (Jonathan McKee/Will Harris), who crossed the line too early and received a one-hour penalty; Zephyr (Simon Toms/Josh Dawson), winners of the Cowes-Dinard race in this category; Diablo (Nicholas Martin/Calanach Finlayson); Cora (Tim Goodhew/Kevin Matthews); and Bellino, sailed by Rob Craigie and Deborah Fish, the first woman to be elected Commodore of the prestigious Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC).
Boats catch the south-easterly breeze off Cherbourg at the Drheam Cup start | Credit: Alexis Courcoux/Drheam Cup
Proof of the British enthusiasm for the Drheam Cup is the fact that the RORC has included it in its calendar and, above all, in the rankings of its annual championship, which is highly coveted across the Channel.
This France/England match is also taken very seriously by the French sailors, who are determined to stay ahead of the game. “There’s good competition with our British friends, with new boats on the scene, so it’s going to be interesting,” said François Moriceau, skipper of Mary, a regular who has raced in the four previous editions and who confesses to aiming for “a top-five finish”.
Cherbourg-based Maxime Mesnil, at the helm of AxeSail by Issartel/Sarbacane, alongside Hugo Feydit, is also aiming for the top: “There are a lot of doubles this year, with a great competition between the French and British. As we’'ve done a lot of RORC races in England, we know them well and we know that the level is high, but we think we can do well.”
Round Ireland winner faces tough competition
In the IRC crewed category, while Eric de Turckheim's 54-foot Teasing Machine, recent winner of the Round Ireland Race, is the favourite, a number of boats are aiming for the podium in both real and compensated time, including the JPK 11.80 Fastwave 6 (Eric Fries); the Dutch J122 Moana (Frans Van Cappelle), sailed by a 100% mixed crew; the British Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep (Jacob Carter); and the Joubert design Stamina Sailing Team (Charlie Ageneau).
In the Multi 2000 class, which brings together very different multihulls, from the MOD70 Drekan Energy (Eric Defert), the largest boat in the fleet, to the ‘small yellow’ tris ACapella Proludic-La chaîne de l’espoir (Charlie Capelle) and Perros-Guirec (Thierry Roger), and including the 50-foot Rayon Vert (Oren Nataf, defending champion), GDD (Bruno Jacob), Wellness Training/MG5 (Marc Guillemot), the challenge will be to win on corrected time, which is Charlie Capelle's openly stated aim, as the three-time winner of the Drheam Cup in this class (2016, 2018 and 2020).
“We’re the smallest boat with Perros-Guirec, so if the wind is really light, we’ve got a chance of winning because ACapella is very fast in light airs, and above all, we know how to trim her,” said the the skipper who has six Route du Rhums to his name.
Finally, in the new Sun Fast 30 one-design class, the eight crews in the running all seem eager to battle it out in the first event that ranks them separately.
“You can tell that everyone is looking forward to competing against each other and comparing speeds. Particularly the British, who have the enthusiasm of youth, but perhaps less experience than us, so it’s fun to race against them,” said Jean Passini (Numerobis).
“We’ve had the boat for two months now, and we’re here to continue learning on a super interesting race in terms of the course and weather, but above all hope to place,” added Noa Geoffroy, at the head of the Collectif Espoir Terre Bleue crew from Cherbourg. “We think we’ve found the tools to get the boat moving, so why not get into the top three?” Answers at the end of the week!
Follow the race on the tracking map, updated every 15 minutes, and get the latest updates via the Drheam Cup website.
