Multis at the heart of London
The opening event of the Multicup 60', the London-Alpes Maritimes race
will get underway at 13:00 on Monday 8 May downstream of the Thames Tidal
Barriers, after a parade beneath Tower Bridge.
Last season a link race between the multihulls' technical bases in
Brittany and the Grands Prix in the Mediterranean was organised from
Lorient to Nice. The intensity was extreme, with much chopping and
changing of the leading positions, plenty of tricky weather situations,
the withdrawal of Groupama-2 due to mast problems off Malta, and a
fabulous final battle between Foncia and Gitana 11 off Nice for third
place on the podium; reaching thirty knots with gennaker up and eventually
won by Frédéric Le Peutrec with a gap of only twenty seconds after nine
days at sea!
This year, with the creation of the Multicup 60', the route facing the six
trimarans (Banque Populaire, Géant, Gitana 11, Gitana 12, Groupama-2, and
Sopra Group) is an even more tactical one, involving as it does first
going down the Thames, then crossing a small section of the North Sea
before passing along the Channel and heading out into the Atlantic. These
first six hundred miles in particular will be technically demanding for
the six crew members on board each boat, as they will have to follow
manoeuvres on the river with managing maritime traffic and sand banks as
they round England, then take advantage of the sea currents and negotiate
thermal breezes or frontal depressions before "de-channelling" and
discovering a more open "battle area" in the Gulf of Gascony.
But after this spicy starter during which the navigators will be
especially in demand and the crews will be tested physically, there will
still remain over two thousand miles to sail amidst widely varying weather
systems. The approach to Cape Finisterre, the north-westernmost tip of
Spain, is renowned for its cyclothymic rhythm, where storms and windless
zones alternate and anticyclonic beam winds are suddenly transformed into
fickle and troublesome cyclonic winds. Not to mention the shipping lanes
to watch, Portuguese fishermen to steer clear of, and the coastal effects
of the Iberian cliffs.
After all this, the six trimarans will then have to dash into the narrows,
in the shape of the Straits of Gibraltar, a passage which can play the
part of tiebreaker by transforming a small advantage into a large gap,
causing bunching, serving as a buffer zone or having a yo-yo effect. Last
season, the multihulls all found themselves in a general assembly, in view
of each other after over a thousand miles of racing.
The six trimarans, reunited with the water in April, have all undergone
optimization work this winter. As the first confrontations at
Port-La-Forêt in mid-April showed, Groupama-2 is fluent as ever, but the
pressure behind is strong in the shape of Banque Populaire, Gitana 11 and
Géant. Sopra Group seemed a shade under par, while Gitana 12 was not
there.
Quelle: scuttlebutteurope
Parliers erneuter Rekordversuch
Der französische Segler Yves Parlier ist bei den letzten Vorbereitungen für neue Solo-Rekordversuche mit dem 60 ft langen Hydroplan-Katamaran. Dazu wird das bisher recht glücklose Boot nach den Kanarischen Inseln überführt.
Der innovative Katamaran "Médiatis Région Aquitaine" mit Parallelrigg der hauptsächlich von regionalen Sponsoren unterstützt wird, ist bei der 2004 Transat gescheitert und zuletzt bei Rekordversuchen nahe den Kanaren gekentert. Parlier erlitt dabei Verletzungen an der Wirbelsäule und an den Rippen, das Boot wurde dabei erheblich beschädigt.
Nach einer gründlichen Überholung und geringfügigen Änderungen folgen als nächstes mehrerer Versuchsfahrten von Parliers Basis in Frankreich aus. Später will Parlier dann die neuen Rekorde anpeilen. Sein Originalkommentar dazu
"In terms of pure speed, we have every confidence in the increased
potential of Médiatis Région Aquitaine. It is now possible to sail easily
at 30 knots average and we have the excitement of seeing the instruments
flick into or pass 40 knots more and more often."
from Elaine Bunting's blog
Multi Cup 60
London - Nice, Trapani, Marseille, Portimao, Fecamp
As announced on December 9th , 2005 and January 31st, 2006, the starting
line of the Multi Cup 60' 2006 will be based in London, May 8th. The first
event of this new championship is an open sea crew-race from London to
Nice on a new course. The first competitors are expected to reach Nice
around may 15th.
5 boats have subscribed to the 2006 championship :
Banque Populaire (Pascal Bidegorry)
Géant (Michel Desjoyeaux)
Gitana 11 (Frédéric Le Peutrec)
Gitana 12 (Thierry Duprey du Vorsent)
Groupama (Franck Cammas)
The instructions of the first transoceanic race will be given on Friday
April 7th 2006.
The Multi Cup 60' will be organized by the company Multi Cup SAS,
specificly founded for this new event. Its CEO should be named in the
next few days.
The name of the companies in charge of the electronic field and image
production will be released to the media before April 21st.