With almost the entire fleet safely in port at midday on Saturday (20 July), three new winners of the Drheam Cup/Grand Prix de France au Large arrived in the prior 24 hours.
Defending champion Groupe Snef (Xavier Macaire) kept hold of his title, and the first race of the new Sun Fast 30 one design was won by SL Energies Groupe (Laurent Charmy), while Merry Dancer (Vincent Delaroche) in the Classic Yacht class arrived on Saturday afternoon.
They are all expected on Sunday (21 July) in La Trinité-sur-Mer for the prize-giving ceremony that will mark the end of the fifth edition.
Xavier Macaire was a happy man on Friday night when he moored his Pogo S4 Groupe Snef on the pontoon at the foot of Caradec peer in La Trinité-sur-Mer. The former Figaro skipper returned to the Drheam Cup to defend his hard-earned Class40 title, won two years ago. He was successful, winning the fifth edition at 20:03, after just over four days at sea over the 630-mile course.
“I came back because I love this race and it is important to me, since I won two years ago,” said the two-time Drheam Cup winner. “The aim was to win again, and we managed, thanks to Tanguy [Bouroullec] and Hugo [Cardon], great crew. They didn’t know the boat, but they adapted really well, we formed a good team with a good atmosphere and a good rhythm.”
Although he ultimately won by a margin of one hour, 56 minutes over Viranga (Emmanuel Hamez) and two hours, 18 minutes over Swift (Jack Trigger), it wasn’t all plain sailing for Groupe Snef, whose crew had to dig deep to make the difference, particularly on Thursday afternoon between the Drheam Cup mark and Rochebonne plateau.
“We had a good battle with the three scows,” Xavier Macaire said. “Swift rounded Wolf Rock ahead of us, hoisted his gennaker and extended his lead to 4-5 miles. We realised that we needed to act fast and do something. With a lot of concentration and hard work, we managed to gain back ground and with a good choice of route in the Bay of Biscay, we managed to make the difference: we sailed towards the coast of Brittany and they went South. Finally, we increased our lead until the finish.
“It was a great race, it lived up to its promise, with many different conditions, upwind in the first part along the coast of England, where we had to pass points, managed the currents, fronts and rain; then high pressure conditions in the second part of the course.”
Will we see Macaire again in two years to defend the title a second time? “I don’t know what I will be doing in two years, so I can’t make any promises, but it will be a pleasure to come back to this race, which I love.”
Next year he will be sailing on an IMOCA, as he will be joining Justine Mettraux on the 60-foot Teamwork-Team Snef.
As for the ‘pointy’ Class40s, TrimControl (Alexandre Le Gallais) had the last word, arriving in the early hours on Saturday ahead of Freedom (François Martin) and Estaco (Nicolas Guibal).
After the Class40s on Sunday, the Drheam Cup delivered its verdict on the Sun Fast 30 one-design class on Friday night, with the first separate ranking for the new one-design class.
The skipper and crew of Merry Dancer celebrate their Classic Yacht class victory | Credit: Joao Eira-Velha/Drheam Cup 2024
Once again, the race lived up to expectations, with balanced competition, options in the last leg between the Drheam Cup mark and Quiberon Bay and, on the finish line, a victory for SL Energies Group (Laurent Charmy), who led the fleet most during the four-and-a-half days at sea. The latter finished ahead of the German crew on Gaia (Lina Rixgens) by 23 minutes and 54 seconds and the Belgian crew on Red Dolphins Espoirs (Jonas Gerckens) by one hour, 28 minutes, making for a mixed and international podium, in perfect keeping with the Drheam Cup’s ethos.
Laurent Charmy was obviously delighted, as he teamed up with Pierrick Letouzé from Cherbourg, who won the two-handed IRC race in 2020. “It’s been a long race, four-and-a-half days, and we all sailed together virtually the whole time,” he said. “We didn’t let up until the end and arrived as a group. That’s the idea and advantage of one design, we race on equal terms. It was the first 500-mile race for this new Class C30, we weren’t able to train beforehand or compare boats, so it was a discovery.
“It appears that the first adjustments we made were the right ones, so we’re happy. Thank you to the organisation, it was a great race, well organised, on a great course, enabling us to live our passion to the full!”
On Saturday afternoon, Merry Dancer (Vincent Delaroche) in turn crossed the finish line of the Drheam Cup at 15:09 after four days, 22 hours and 24 minutes at sea. “We took a good start upwind, we were keeping up with the fleet’s speed and heading, although we know we would soon loose ground,” Delaroche said. “After Shambles, the fleet headed towards the coast and we remained further to sea. The winds were strong and gusting at 35 knots, we suffered a bit. We then sailed a long upwind leg, 150 miles heading towards the Drheam Cup waypoint, where we were able to bear away and sail on a close/beam reach.
“Merry Dancer likes to sail upwind, we were well served. We are used to this type of race, we often race or sail across the Atlantic. It was a very interesting experience, we will be back! I had a wonderful crew with my daughter and her friends, it was great fun! The organisation was superb; thank you to Jacques Civilise, there are few races like this, it was really fun. I will be back in two years and will bring other Classic Yachts.”
The podiums in the Drheam Cup (provisonal rankings):
Multi 2000: 1. GDD (Bruno Jacob), 2. Minor Swing (Didier Bouillard), 3. Acapella-Proludic-La chaîne de l’espoir (Charlie Capelle)
IRC 0: 1. Teasing Machine (Eric de Turckheim) – the only competitor in this category
IRC 1: 1. Moana (Frans Van Cappelle), 2. Fastwave 6 (Eric Fries), 3. Stamina Sailing Team (Charlie Ageneau)
IRC Double-Handed: 1. AxeSail by Issartel/Sarbacane (Maxime Mesnil/Hugo Feydit), 2. Bellino (Rob Craigie/Deborah Fish), 3. Red Ruby (Jonathan McKee/Will Harris)
Class40: 1. Groupe Snef (Xavier Macaire), 2. Viranga (Emmanuel Hamez), 3. Swift (Jack Trigger)
Sun Fast 30: 1. SL Energies Group (Laurent Charmy), 2. Gaia (Lina Rixgens), 3. Red Dolphins Espoirs (Jonas Gerckens)
Classic Yachts: 1. Merry Dancer (Vincent Delaroche)
