Three wins, including two inshore races in which they lead at every turning buoy, marks out an initial superiority for Sébastien Josse and his polished crew of Edmond de Rothschild who will leave Valencia on Sunday with the best of the inshore points in the bag when the Route de Princes fleet head off on offshore Leg 1, 800 miles to Lisbon, Portugal.
While the first offshore stage out of the Mediterranean is expected to be slow in light winds, the three short sharp inshore circuits off Malvarossa beach Saturday were contested in a gusty, puffy cross-offshore breeze which topped 20knots at times, especially testing boat handling and sheer speed.
Edmond de Rothschild were on imperious form, inshore tactician Sebastien Col and navigator Charles Caudrelier combining to produce some key layline calls and astute use of the gusty winds. The crew’s slick handling around the corners was obvious but skipper Josse confirmed that their performance was equally attributable to a good feeling on board, a day when everything ran smoothly for them:
“I think the crew were just really strong in our boat handling.” Josse smiled, “ For sure Seb Col did a good job as tactician as it is not easy to get the laylines right and he did that nine times today, so I think he had a better feeling than the others today with that. But everyone did well today on board.
It does not mean too much to have lead at so many marks. Sometimes you are in the groove and sometimes not. We really have something today that we see and we feel.”
While Edmond de Rothschild’s success today could be said to reflect the form book, their team enhanced by the recruitment of Caudrelier and Col who won last summer’s MOD70 European Tour with Michel Desjoyeaux’s Foncia, the surprise package perhaps today was Jean-Pierre Dick’s Virbac Paprec 70. They had back to back second places and only by virtue of a second place in the third race today – which brought the complement of Valencia inshores to six – did Spindrift steal second overall, on countback.
Finishing runners up in the last race was an important boost for Yann Guichard’s team as an emergency tack in the first race, precipitated by a close encounter with Virbac Paprec 70, left them stranded head to wind, resulting in a last place.
“ On the first race there was a lot of pressure for me on what I do.” Admitted Xavier Revil, deputising for absentee Yann Guichard on Spindrift’s helm, “ It was really important for me, at this stage, to keep the boat intact before the first offshore leg. So to come back to the dock with the boat in good condition is important. I think we will be very good on the long distance race, Yann will be back.”
With a 2,2,3 for the day Jean-Pierre Dick was happy with the first inshore series for Virbac Paprec 70. That was not so much the case for Sidney Gavignet’s team on Oman Air-Musandam who allowed too many small errors to cost them valuable early points and finished up fourth.
Damian Foxall of Air Oman-Musandam summed up: “Yesterday I did not think we were that far off it, but today we were quite far off. We should be getting closer not further away! I think we are going around the corners well enough, we need to be generally being on the start line fast and going in the right direction. Boat handling wise I don’t think we made any big mistakes. There were a couple of little furling problems with the gennaker when the wind was up, you still want them furling fast. We have some work to do.”