7 Fiveohs came to sail for two days in the Golfe du Morbihan area and practise despite the rather cold weather 2C and the breeze (force 2 to 5). The Club Nautique de Sarzeau has been organizing 5o5 training sessions for a year and half over the winter period and more and more 5o5ers are now attending these sessions every three weeks. Sessions are prepared with a theme and follow the same format: Briefing, warm up, exercise of the day, races, debriefing and "food and drinks".
The first day is when the mistakes are noted and analysed, the second day is when they are corrected. The purpose of this session was to practise gybing and rounding the gybing mark... challenging when it is blowing a gusty 25 knots in waves...
Overall we sailed for 5 hours each day and had revealing speed tests which allowed most of the participants to tune their boats to keep pace with the best. Another great interest was seen in the improvement of the timing of a gybing falling from 50 sec to below 25 within a couple of days...
Marcel Buffet was there spreading a fun mood all around with his never ending jokes and challenging the youngest to keep his pace on the water.
Eric Vassor was trying to keep his new Collignon up and running and it is hard to get used to a new boat...
The Lasnier brother were impressive in their tacking and gybing revealing the long 470 experience they had accumulated.
Henri Chemineau coming from the Contender is learning damned fast to handle the 5o5 (Henri was Tabarly's crew)
For some other teams to resume sailing in the cold and sporty conditions was pretty challenging and a experience to have... For all, newcomers, regular or experienced sailor this session was excellent and we are all looking forward to the next in three weeks time.
1/ Marcel Buffet/Herve Morin Kyrwood 8544 Pinnell
2/ Ludovic Roblin/X Kyrwood 843? Pinnell
3/ Jean-Baptiste Dupont/Jerome Legeai Rondar 8635 Pinnell
4/ Laure et Frederic Dalle Rondar 8359 Hyde
5/ Henri Chemineau/Jean-Claude Ancelot Rondar 8462 Pinnell
6/ Eric Vassor/Yann Piqueret Collignon 8103 DNF Pinnell
7/ Lasnier brother Rondar 8462 DNC Hyde
Best regards
Jean-Baptiste