En route to the championship… British

The regatta season is in full swing, for me it looks even richer-if possible-than the previous one. After the national IRC title conquered last year with the crew of the JPK 1010 Alkaïd 3 (race name Nautistock.com), the owner Gérard Quenot planned an ambitious schedule, leading from front to the crew and double championships. In the aftermath of a fifth place at the Spi Ouest France in the program reduced to the skin of grief by the weather, we chained with the GP of the Crouesty for which, once is not custom, I had left the steering to manage the beach before: second in IRC 3-4 but PR Emiers IRC 3. To follow the GP of La Rochelle, in early July, where it is hoped that participation will be a little more extensive this year. On the front of the double, Gérard makes the teammates turn: I finished with him on the podium of the half-key Duo (a tour of Lorient and Belle Ile departing from Groix)… One minute and seven seconds from first place. I return in August for the Dhream Cup, a new race of 400,000 created by the UNCL. Gérard loves the double and the broad, the boat too, and me the same: there’s more to it!

Precision: In the meantime the boat changed its name to Atlantic Loisirs, same sponsor but different commercial poster.

At the same time, some infidelities. The Massilia Cup as tactician on Solenn, a brand new JPK 1080, in a superb atmosphere despite the little worries and trial inevitable with a boat that had recovered its sails the day before the championship.

Then the Weaponn Race, as a deflector, on the JND 39 of Mestral Marine Works. This plan of the firm Joubert-Levelt-Murat and signs a rather radical approach to the IRC gauge, with a very light shift, a considerable ballast ratio, and a relatively modest sail (nothing without anything). The hull was built in Portugal, as Lann Aël, its quasi-sister-ship, but it is a completely re-drawn bridge that was built and assembled in Spain at Mestral Marine, the site of the formidable Toni Weijl, goldsmith of the Strat ‘ and Marin Emeritus (17 Sunbeds on the counter….). For the time being the JND 39 is the shipyard boat, it was rented for the beginning of the season to Michel Perretié, the owner of the Archambaut 40 based in Royan: hence the name of baptism of Stamina, taken from the boats of Michel.

From now on it passes in the hands of another crew, constituted by Joe Lacey, English racer installed near the Trinity on the sea, which is very strong to develop in particular the diffusion of the JND, and in general to create the link between the sail to the Fran French and the British yachting.

Thus, at the United Kingdom Championship held this weekend in Cowes the bar of the boat will be entrusted to Andrew Hurst, editor in chief of Seahorse magazine, accompanied by some of his compatriots but also a skewer of frog eaters ( of which your servant is robbing. Re-Belote at the end of July for the Commodore’s Cup, inter-nation competition by teams of three boats, always with Andrew Hurst, but also with Jean Philippe Cau, president of the UNCL, as second helmsman. And we will run… Under the color colors!

In a way, the Commodore’s Cup is a legacy of the Admiral Cup, national team race that made the rich hours of the IOR gauge: less long, less international, less professional, but in the same waters for the most part and a little On the same model. Just as the Fastnet 2015 had rejuvenated me for a pack of years, I am very happy to come back in the footsteps of a competition that I had played on board Ossian (1981) then Proud Lady (1983). Can these reunions prove to be as successful as those of last summer (see below the ticket on the victory at Fastnet)!