After a stunning performance over the Bank Holiday weekend, local Le Havre boat Pintia is the overall winner of the 2016 RORC Cervantes Trophy Race. The French J/133, racing in IRC Two, was skippered by Gilles Fournier and crewed by the creator of the Louis Vuitton Cup, Bruno Trouble and past Commodore of the Société des Régates du Havre, Corraine Migraine. Pintia's big win was set up right from the start when the French team chose the north shore of the Solent and led overall into the English Channel. Squally conditions prevailed south of the Isle of Wight with several yachts damaging sails in the 30 knot gusts, accounting for the retirement of last year's class winner, Harry Heijst's Winsome and Brian Wilkinson's Rigit On Wild Child. Lighter conditions prevailed for the majority of the fleet as they crossed the English Channel but Pintia managed to stay in good breeze to claim overall victory. Pintia was second overall last year and Gilles Fournier was delighted with the win.
"Corraine Migraine is my daughter and Bruno Trouble is my very old friend, we sailed 505s in the 60's, Quarter Tonners in the 70s and Admiral's Cups in the 80s, so we have a good understanding in the team. At the start, we had the current with us and although we had to sail more miles, we were first overall at No Man's Land Fort, to the south the current was against the boats that went that way, so that was very good for us, very valuable. When we left the Solent we did not have much wind, which was expected but then the wind picked up again after Bembridge Ledge and we tacked very close to the shore up to St. Catherine's Point. We had a big squall and tacked at the right moment. For the Channel crossing and finish at Le Havre, we managed to stay in 10 knots of wind all the way, while the wind died behind us. We will be celebrating in the yacht club today, we are very happy to win in our home port."
IMOCA 60, Artemis Ocean Racing, skippered by Mikey Ferguson, took line honours and the class win in IRC Canting Keel. Mikey Ferguson's team are all talented young sailors with high aspirations for the future; Irish Figaro sailor Dave Kenefick, British Two Handed Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland sailor Conrad Manning, American Mini-Transat sailor Jesse Naimark-rowse and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing Volvo Ocean Race rookie, James O'Mahony.
"We are looking to compete in the majority of the RORC programme and during the season we will bring in some of the Artemis Academy sailors, this year we also have Dee Caffari sailing with us as coach for the young Brits who are aiming to comepte in the 2020 Vendee Globe. We are out to retain our trophies from last year. We have a very young crew but also a very experienced team and after two individual wins and two second overalls last year, we would like to win a race outright!"
In IRC One, James Neville's HH42, Ino XXX was the winner and placed second overall. The British team's performance will be noted by the RYA Selection panel, as the Cervantes Trophy Race is a qualifier for the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup, a main objective for 2016 for Ino XXX. Nicholas Jones' First 47.7, Lisa, co-skippered by RORC Commodore, Michael Boyd was second in class and third overall. Alan Hannon's RP45, Katsu was third in class and fourth overall.
In IRC Two, Pintia was the class winner, in second place was Maxime de Mareuil's X-41, Orange Mecanix and third was Sailing Logic's First 40, Rocket Dog II, skippered by Richard Oswald.
In IRC Three, Arnaud Delamare and Eric Mordret's JPK 10.80, Dream Pearls was the class winner. Dream Pearls home port is St.Malo and the team have been racing together for about 12 years with tremendous success including second overall in the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race. "We are coming back this year with the same spirit, to enjoy good sailing and we have the philosophy of " GO hard or GO home"!!! We are very fond of RORC races, which are full of nice and well suited boats, with good competitors and a nice organization. Our first objective this year will be the European IRC championship taking place at Cork this July. We will do our best for a good result in the RORC Season's Points Championship. It will be very tough with so many dangerous competitors... we love that!"
In IRC Three, second and third were both Two Handed teams. Jean-Eudes Renier's JPK 10.80, Shaitan was second in IRC Three but first in the IRC Two Handed Class. Shaitan had a terrific battle with the reigning Two-Handed champion, Louis-Marie Dussere's JPK 10.10, Raging Bee. Shaitan won the Two Handed class by just one minute and 37 seconds after 28 hours of racing. British pair, Ian Hoddle & Nigel Colley racing Sunfast 3600, Game On was third in IRC Two-Handed.
In IRC Four Noel Racine's JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew went one better than last year, winning the class. Noel was relieved to have scraped into Le Havre just before the tide really started to build and the wind shut down; leaving the rest of IRC 4 struggling to make any progress towards the finishing line.
In the Class40 division, Christophe Coatnoan's Partouche was the winner, ahead of Tony Lawson's all girls team racing Concise 2, skippered by Joy Fitzgerald.
The RORC Season's Points Championship continues with the North Sea Race, which is weighted at 1.2 for the championship. The North Sea Race is scheduled to start on Friday May 6th from Harwich bound for Scheveningen, approximate race length is 180 nautical miles across the North Sea.
