A promising first event for the French
This Saturday, February 16, 2019 ended the first round of the SailGP circuit in Australia after two days of racing in the F50 class. It was the Australians led by skipper Tom Slingsby who won this first series of regattas in Sydney Harbour. The Japanese - led by Australian Nathan Outteridge (former Artemis Racing crew member on the America's Cup), finished second on the podium after a fierce battle.
These two teams have a perfect command of the catamaran and stand out from the other four crews. Superior in speed and manoeuvring, they are an example for their competitors, who all race at roughly the same level. Indeed, the English, American, Chinese and French pursuers constitute a homogeneous group in terms of mastery and competition.
The French - most of whose crew is made up of Olympic sailors - approached this first event with humility. Composed only six months ago, the team is aware of these strengths and weaknesses. With only 8 days of training aboard these cars, the French team showed promising behaviour with an evolution in the ranking throughout the 5 regattas competed in a light wind (less than 10 knots).
With heats in 6th, 5th, 3rd, 3rd, 4th and 4th positions, some nice starts and an ability to get back into the game upwind when they are dominated, Billy Besson, Marie Riou, Matthieu Vandame, Olivier Herledant and Timothé Lapauw have some good points to rely on.
Contents of their service
"To tell you the truth, it's rare to see myself so satisfied at the bottom of the table, but the boats are so fantastic, so exciting that it's a real pleasure to see yourself progressing from hour to hour" said Billy Besson after the last two fleet races on Saturday. " Upwind, we have a good attacking attitude, we have been incisive and opportunistic while it was not easy to go to the right place tactically and there have been some good starts. We are happy with our performance, but we have to keep a cool head. We're still a long way from the others technically and we need to improve, especially downwind and in manoeuvres."
"It was too short these two jours?!" regrets a radiant Marie Riou on her return to shore. "There have been some beautiful things. Friday could have been a great day - the French, third in the first run, make a mistake at the end of the race - it's a shame. But apart from that, we managed to sail in contact with the first ones. Our team is great. We work in a great state of mind. Billy is more and more comfortable on the boat, he has already made his mark. We're making progress every day, we're going to keep up the momentum."
See you in May 2019 in the United States
The next stop will be the west coast of the United States, in San Francisco, on May 4 and 5. In the meantime, the sailors will take a few days off before returning to their respective usual circuits: Matthieu, Olivier and Timothé will board the GC32 (teams Norauto and Alinghi) and Billy Besson and Marie Riou are engaged in a 2 eST PRIS DANS LE GROS TEMPS, ET TANGUE DE GAUCHE ?ROITE, SECOUÉ PAR LES VAGUES. UN HOMME, SANS DOUTE UN PÊCHEUR QUI PARTICIPE À UNE SESSION DE PÊCHE SPORTIVE, PASSE PAR-DESSUS BORD, DE MANIÈRE ASSEZ IMPRESSIONNANTE. olympic campaign in duet in Nacra 17.
