Exciting first day of racing in Marseille ends with the French flag flying high

Also, provisionally straight through to the final on Wednesday 30 September are NED01 (Simeon Tienpoint & Christine Walta) in fourth and SWE02 (Lena Having & Eivind Bøymo-Malm) in fifth. 

The 90NM race started at 11:05 Thursday 24 September in 5-8kt SW winds and bright blue cloudless skies. The course started with a beat West for 30NM to the Camargue, then a 40NM run South East to Cassidaigne Lighthouse avoiding the exclusion zone around Planier Island before beating back North West and a short reach to the finish off Marseille. 

First over the line was FRA02 who immediately tacked onto port and headed for the cliffs on îles de Frioul. AUS01 and NOR01 (Karl-Otto & Magda Book) soon followed the local Marseille based sailors and all three boats benefitted from the lift taking an early lead.  

Meanwhile the rest of the fleet stayed on starboard with NED01 bravely holding the starboard tack for longest and getting separated south of the fleet.  The wind was patchy and some boats started to struggle in the holes with GER01 and NOR01 deploying Code Zeros to try and improve their speed.   

By mid-afternoon the Westerly Mistral had built to 15kts and the tactics from NED01 were paying off along with ESP01 (Hugo Ramon Froye & Gráinne Costigan) who were leading the pack. There was a large spread North to South of the fleet with NOR1 the most extreme North over 6NM away from GER01 the most extreme South. 

ESP01 lead at the windward mark in a building breeze as the boats started their downhill sleigh ride with the boats surfing the waves with speeds in the high teens.  The wind built to 20-25kts and with the boats all in close proximity, diving into the waves it was exciting and very wet for the sailors.   

By now the top 6 boats, ESP01, FRA01, GER01, AUS01, NED01 and SWE02 had established a clear lead on the rest of the fleet and ESP01 and FRA02 traded the lead and it was FRA02 who was first to the leeward mark at Cassidaigne Lighthouse.  

On the final beat the fleet split, local sailors FRA02 went inshore benefitting from a 10’ lift on their direction from the coastal wind effects and flatter water. They were followed inshore by AUS01. ESP01 chose to tack offshore concerned that the breeze inshore may shut down. Although FRA02 did suffer a small shut down it was only for a few minutes so by the Planier lighthouse they had extended their lead.  

On the final leg they extended their lead further and by the time they crossed the finish line at 02:49:30 FRA02 was over 2NM ahead of GER01 in second place.  

Most crews had little to no sleep though most managed to eat something. FRA02 described having a nice dinner and quiet moment as they enjoyed the sunset. Sadly, for ESP01 a loss of navigation on their tablet and laptop left them struggling to find the finish in the dark and unfortunately, they didn’t cross the finish line.  

The second qualifying race is Saturday 26 September to compete for the next five places in the final followed by the second chance Repechage race on Monday 28 September for the last place in the final.  

Images courtesy of Yohan Brandt.