(Brest, France)- The 12th edition of the Grand Prix Ecole Navale
produced an "upset" of sorts in the French hierarchy of J/80 sailing,
one of the largest regional one-design keelboat classes in all of
France. With hundreds of J/80s sailing in France over the past decade,
it takes top teams years to migrate to the top of the class and maintain
a continuum of success that is not easily achieved. Last weekend, that
status quo was upset by a relative newcomer to the J/80 class in
France.
As
if destined to win from the very beginning of the vent, COURRIER
DUNKERQUE, skippered by Vincent Vandekerkhove managed a great
performance to finish first and second in the last two races of the
final day of racing, reserving their place atop the J/80 podium as
Champions of the GPEN event! In fact, they never looked back after the
first two races, taking their place in the lead spot and never finishing
out of the top ten in eight races! Vandekerkhove dethrones Eric
Brézellec and crew on INTERFACE CONCEPT who won the last three editions
of the event.
The
balance of the podium was comprised of Brezellec's INTERFACE CONCEPT in
second place, winning a tie-breaker at 35 pts over fellow team-mate
Simon Moriceau's INTERFACE CONCEPT 2, who had to settle for third place.
The rest of the top five saw a brilliant performance by Bernard Hughes
on ESPOIR PAYS DE LA LOIRE, sailing to a 3-3-1-3 in the first four
races, only to "fall from grace with the sea"! Their next four races
were anything but brilliant, having to tack on a BFD-8-13-8 to drop them
to 39 pts net, good enough for fourth overall. Fifth is past J/80
champion Luc Nadal on GAN'JA with 44 net pts.After four days of intense racing in the harbor of Brest-Morgat Crozon and Camaret, the 177 boats of the Grand Prix Ecole Navale and their 711 crew members completed their competitions on the last day in a moderate westerly flow of 10-15 knots. Conditions were warmer than the day before and greatly appreciated by competitors after some cool days beforehand
The Grand Prix Ecole Navale event once again confirms the dynamic combination of expertise of the Naval Academy, the Navy and the French Sailing Federation, together with the participation of many volunteers Nautical center of Crozon-Morgat and Club Léo Lagrange de Camaret, led to fantastic regatta organization and on-the-water race management for one of the most famous in European yachting events.
Sailing photo credits: Pierrick Contin- pierrick.contin@wanadoo.fr/ Jacques Vapillon- photo@vapillon.com For more J/80 Grand Prix Ecole Navale sailing information
