Hot day on this Class40 World Championship, both literally and figuratively... If the heat and erratic winds have settled on the Charente-Maritime and the Bassin des Chalutiers, the prefectural decree of the day as part of the "extreme red heatwave vigilance in Charente-Maritime" and prohibiting "the holding of any public event outdoors or in non-air-conditioned establishments receiving the public" from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm today and tomorrow, Saturday, means that the Class40 World Championship could not be held today and will not be able to take place tomorrow. In the end, three races will have been sailed on Tuesday/Wednesday and Thursday with one offshore course and two built courses sailed yesterday.
BACK TO THE OFFSHORE COURSE: INTER INVEST IN THE LEAD!
The dice were thrown for the first confrontation of this 2022 Class40 World Championship. The track was blue with an oceanic tendency with a 144 miles course that took the fleet to the north of the area, the Vendée, to return to La Rochelle via the Rochebonne plateau. A so-called 24-hour course which, in the end, was swallowed up by the frontrunners in 17 hours at sea. Once again, the Class40s showed their incredible potential to swallow the miles, despite the fact that the weather conditions were light and variable. In the end, everything went smoothly... even if the difficulties were varied. Indeed, the first hurdle was the exit of the Antioche channel and to sail along the Ile de Ré by the South face. Simple on paper, except that a huge windless zone blocked the direct route, forcing some Class40s to slide to the tip of Chassiron north of the island of Oleron and cross the water. Once out of this tricky Charentais channel, it was necessary to progress upwind towards the Petite Barge mark off Les Sables d'Olonne. There too, it was necessary to be in the right tempo not to be unhooked and stay in contact with the more powerful boats. The mark will be rolled up at around 11 pm for the first boats, knowing that afterwards the priority was to glide downwind to reach the Rochebonne plateau. Glide, glide and more glide... Clear and bright night, mild temperatures, rigging set, the perfect cocktail to swallow miles on a single tack without getting too far from the direct route to minimize the number of miles to cover. Quickly, and from the first Vendée mark, several monohulls broke away with Matthieu Perraut's Inter Invest in the lead, and Aurélien Ducroz's Crosscall in the rear. The pace is hard and will continue until the finish line. So much so that Crosscall and Redman were still battling it out less than a mile from the finish line. Inter Invest won remarkably well on this first course, passing all the marks in the lead and finishing 32 minutes ahead of his two pursuers, with Redman ahead of Crosscall by... 5 minutes. (race of coefficient 3)
REVIEW OF THE TWO CONSTRUCTED COURSE RACES: LAMOTTE MODULE CRÉATION AND CROSSCALL, WINNERS.
A day that started in pain for the whole fleet with two race launches unfortunately cancelled, for lack of wind on the Rochelais water. It was not until mid-afternoon, shortly before 4 pm, that the wind became established in the north-west to launch a new race in the form of a constructed course. It was Lamotte - Module Création of Luke Berry who won this first race of the day ahead of Nestenn Entrepreneurs for the Planet and Crosscall. To note, the almost perfect day for Luke's new boat which was launched only two weeks ago. A second race will be launched in the wake of the first, taking advantage of the light north-west breeze on the water. Crosscall, in spite of a difficult start, went up the fleet and won this second race in front of Lamotte Module Création which had a sublime day, and Inter Invest which made up for its 7th place in the previous race. Captain Alternance of Kéni Piperol finished 4th and Redman, 5th. (race of coefficient 1)
AURELIEN DUCROZ, CLASS40 WORLD CHAMPION 2022.
In the general ranking, it is Crosscall of Aurélien Ducroz who finishes first with a 3rd place in the Offshore course and a 3rd and 1st place in the built courses. Matthieu Perraut's Inter Invest finished 2nd overall with his victory in the Offshore course and his 7th and 3rd places yesterday Thursday. Third overall is Antoine Carpentier on Redman with his 2nd place in the Offshore course, 5th and 4th in the built courses. Luke Berry's Lamotte Module Création finished 4th overall ahead of Amélie Grassi's La Boulangère Bio. 16 boats ranked.
Aurélien Ducroz (Crosscall), 2022 Class40 world champion: "We had three great races, so we are very happy! We have a boat that works really well and a crew that was top notch. It was a lot of maneuvering and we were pretty good at it. It's a great pleasure because it's a great project that we've been working on since last year. We haven't had much luck up to now and it's good to see that it's smiling on us today. We had a nice coastal race, we were in the lead in Les Sables d'Olonne and then we got caught in a trap... We lost two or three miles... We managed to come back and in the end, we did quite well and then yesterday, we had two nice races even if we didn't have the best starts. But we managed to come back from behind and to place well. It was very pleasant even if we are frustrated not to do more, now we can only be happy! The fact of racing with a crew reminded me of the Tour de France à la Voile that I did in Diam three years in a row... You find reflexes even if it is a bit physical on these boats, but it was very pleasant. I really like sailing with a crew and the collaboration with Vincent (Riou) was just extraordinary. Sailing with someone who has so much experience is a real chance and a real pleasure. So, I thank him enormously as well as all the others who were on board, David Sineau, Eric Levet, Benjamin Bireau, Thomas Audren without forgetting my boat captain Jonathan Chodkiewiez with whom I am very happy to have been able to share this moment...
Source: GPO
Classement général: Championnat du Monde Class40 - Class40
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