Cavalaire, 01,02,03,04 April 1999
It is by now a tradition for the French to hoist a major European event over the Easter weekend every year. We could not hoist the Europa Cup tour this year since we will be hoisting the World in July 99, that is why we decided to race our National instead to make sure everyone keeps on coming on the French Riviera at this time of the year. Eighty-three teams came to race the regatta and they have no regrets, as you will see.
First day: Germans, you go first!
First race was started in a force 2 wind. On the first beat, Markus Muehlbauer and Angela Stenger took the lead and wont let it go till the end of the race with such ease that everyone else was very impressed. Ian Pinnell et Nick Powell were very rigorous, taking any opportunity to catch up meters after meters, taking advantage of any gab left by their opponents, finished second, thus confirming that they did not make the
trip just to show off! Alain Boite (Philippe Boite's brother) and Maxime Legoff finished third after they could not contain the English in a moment of lack of
concentration. However this mistake was little given they had tremendously progressed with their brand new boat since the Troyes and Morges regattas. They changed their maststep position and re-tuned rake, complying with the Pinnell & Bax tuning guide, this will open new
perspectives for them. Being the first French team on the first race day, they won the Louis Michel Ces trophy (Louis-Michel was a talented 5o5er friend who killed himself in a plane crash over the Central Massif
in 1996 - He won twice the French National with Watine). This trophy rewards the best French team at the first race.
The Brits, Steve Nicholson and John Mildred, finished fourth. We noticed that they were fast in windy conditions at the Troyes regatta, we now know that they are pretty good in light conditions too. Philippe Boite and Jean-Luc Muzellec finished fifth enjoying overtaking the German team Hunger/Jess in the last beat. The latter team paid the big price for not having read carefully the Notice of Race… the finishing line was located at the same spot as the starting line in order to minimize the time spent between consecutive races. Mark Upton-Brown with his new crew Dan Jonhson finished sixth. Laurent Hay and Stephane Boudier who finished ninth are in to get into the top ten.
The second race was started with a stronger wind (force 3). Hunger/Jess are the rabbit and will finish far ahead at the first mark. With this thermal wind coming from the Souht West, the right side of the course was far better which resulted in having most of the fleet waiting for the rabbit at the right end of the line close the 4 minutes timeframe defined in the race instructions.
Pinnell and Powell who stayed at the front of the fleet finished second and the German Bohm/Roos third. For the French, only Gallo/Toupet managed to finish in the top ten. Philippe Boite/Muzellec together with Alain Boite/Legoff started very early and got immediately covered on the lay line. Alain chose to tack inside to recover but this move made his position even worse, Philippe made a more conservative choice in staying left and thus limiting the loss (finishing 11th). This is certainly a problem with the gate start. A nice surprise is worth mentioning Chartier Guiball stayed for long in the top ten and made life tough to the usual top finishers. This is enough to say that they don’t miss a lot to finish among the best. Their speed is good, their position on the course clever, they need a bit more of regularity to make it.
Second day : The French Rebuff
Weather wise, it was the same, warm and light wind. Jose le Fouler, head of the race committee, made us wait on the parking lot due to lack of wind and then sent us on the water at the beginning of the afternoon.
First race: Just after the start, Philippe Boite/Muzellec noticed that the boats that started after them were late, they tacked in front of the fleet. With two benefits: convert in real boatlengths the potential advantage they made (20 to 40 meters) and protect the right side of the course which is the favourable one up to now. Pinnell/Powell just did the same and it is in this order that they would round the first mark. They stayed this way until the last beat. Pinnell/Powell attacked on the left side of the course… but they were passed by Upton-Brown/Johnson who stayed on the right… This was the way to race this beat. Hunger/Jess kept pressing the leaders finishing fourth. The other French could not keep up with the pace and only Boudier/Hay finishing 16th were close to the leaders. Michel Christ and Philippe Claude are getting there with the boat they bought from Ian Pinnell and they finished in the first twenties.
Second race: Jose was having problems to get the race started. At his first attempt the boat following the rabbit broke down, someone on the boat slipped and undid the gas hose connected to the engine! Despite this had happened at the end of the start, the race had to be restarted… then the VHF did not work… therefore the boats were stopped only at the end of the second reach… Just for the record of this stopped leg, Bohm/Roos who were the rabbit rounded the first buoy first… the right side was the one to go for, for sure. Second start; everybody is now aware that it was better to start on the right side to the extent that a bunch of boats were too far down the line and missed it, but instead of coming back to round the boat they continued to the weather mark… As they were passing in front of him, Jose was recording the boat numbers on his tape recorder only of find that nothing was recorded on the tape… forcing him to stop this race again. Very few understood the reason behind this second recall because the course was perfectly set up, the wind was steady… The guilty boats were lucky. At aperitif time Jose had the opportunity to shed some light on the incidents.
Just for the record again, the rabbit Bohm/Roos were ahead again at the first mark. Third start: This was the good one. The right side is the one to go for and one more time Bohm/Roos rounded the mark in the first position and won the race. Boite/Muzellec finished second and Boite/Legoff finished sixth. Hay/Boudier did not race because another competitor broke the trapeze wire during one of the recall. They will benefit from a redress overall.
Third day: German rebuff time!!!
During the third day, Hunger/Holger Jess won the two races and left only crumbs to their opponents. Boite/Muzellec were having a good day with a third and a second but it was not enough to get first overall. Their
finish in the second race was made difficult given they broke the tiller 20 meters away from the finishing line. Luckily, the wind was dying and a gentle puff coming from nowhere allowed them to overtake Muelbauher/Stenger (who rounded the first mark first without fully sailing on the right side of the course!!!) and Upton-Brown/Johnson on the line. Pinnell/Powell were the looser of this day with a ninth and a seventh. Bohm/Roos confirmed their brilliant eve in the first race but disappeared in the depth of the fleet in the second race. Hay/Boudier with a sixth and eighth were aiming at the top ten overall, Boite/Legoff with a seventh and a thirties were, one more time, far too irregular. At the end of the day, everyone was counting. Three teams could still win overall.
Fourth day: The French finished with "classe"! The wind changed side. It was a southwesterly breeze. Jose postponed the start waiting for the seabreeze to settle before he could set up the course. This was the time we needed to hoist the French Class AGM,… then the fleet set off while the wind remained the same. No one knew where to start and which was the favorable side for the first beat. The three first overall stayed together and started at the end of the starting line. To win the calculation was simple (not as much so ndt) The German should not finished with more than three boats behind the French and seven behind the Brit. The French must have four boats between them and the German and should not finish behind two additional boats behind the Brit. The brit must finished in front of 7 boats in front of the German and three in front of the French.
The first beat saw the three boats sailing in parallel, in the downwind position, Pinnell/Powell, in the middle one, Boite/Muzellec and Hunger/Jess in the upwind position. A slight left shift gave the lead to the brits who rounded the mark second behind Hay/Boudier who demonstrated their art at finding the best position on the course. The German were fifth and the French rounded tenth resulting from a bad approach. But a lot of things were to come on the water! On the first reach, the Brits were going to far up and were having a hard time to get down to the gybing buoy; Boite /Muzellec who sniffed
the bargain, went down and overtook four boats including the German. They will continue to overtake the fleet up to win the race benefiting from the wind shifts and the puffs. This was made far easier since Pinnell/Powell had to create a major gap to win overall and their control was weaken to try to win overall instead of winning this race only.
The brits finished third. The German sixth, and this was enough for Boite/Muzellec to take the lead overall. But there was still one race to come. The end of this race was made difficult for the second half of the fleet because the thermal wind was taking over the weather system wind making the latter dying.
Despite all its good will, the committee was unable to start another race.
Finally Philippe Boite and Jean-Luc Muzellec won overall, winning the trophy for the fifteenth time (Philippe) and the twelfth (Jean-Luc) the Hallali trophy rewarding the first French team of the French National. Laurent Hay and Stephane Boudier won the Poullain trophy rewarding the second French team. Alain Boite and Maxime Legoff won the Ligneul trophy rewarding the third French team and the Louis-Michel Ces trophy rewarding the first French team on the first race. The Prize giving ceremony was held in a warm atmosphere, with wonderful cups awarded to the three top finishers. Then it was cocktail party time, which was, as always, a good opportunity for everyone to comment and catch up with the latest gossip.
We will all keep a wonderful souvenir of this 99 edition of the Cavalaire regatta raced with winds which are more in line with what we are use to at this time of the year on the French Riviera... Thanks a lot to Michel Court and his team who hoist our regatta every year with such enthusiasm and generosity.
See you all next year to race the next Europa Cup in Cavalaire in the year 2000…
By Jean-Luc Muzellec
Translated into English by Jean-Baptiste Dupont
13 April 1999