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GROUPAMA wins London-Alps Maritime Race

Nice, France: Franck Cammas and his crew of five are first to bring their trimaran across the finishing line of the London-Alps Maritimes yacht race finishing at 14h 12' 04'' Monday, after 6 days 21 hours and 3 minutes and 4 seconds. This marks the first ocean race victory for Groupama 2 since she was launched in June 2004.

© Yvan Zedda

Groupama 2 appeared in the Baie des Anges this afternoon in a 8-12 knot ESE breeze, taking a little less than 7 days to cover the 2075 miles from London to Nice at an average speed of 12.67 knots. This race time emphasises the diversity of the weather conditions from the Thames, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Light air and moderate breezes alternated throughout, the crews sometimes being slowed to a halt and at other times accelerating. The main feature of this first ocean race marking the opening of the new Multi Cup Café Ambassador Championship has been the permanent duel between Groupama 2 and Banque Populaire IV who have remained within ten or so miles of each other since the start in London. Banque Populaire finished just a half an hour after Groupama 2.

© Yvan Zedda

Michel Desjoyeaux and his crew sailed Géant into Nice at 16h 42' this afternoon to take third place in the Londres-Alpes Maritimes yacht race. The trimaran came close to worrying the two leaders at one point on the home stretch along the coast of Spain this weekend.

At press time Gitana 12 was still racing, with 4.60 nm to finish. Antoine Koch and the crew of Sopra Group are still in the Alboran Sea. The weather is still not playing into his hand. Chaotic sea in a 15-20 knots easterly blow. Not much fun for the red trimaran. Sopra will have to tack her way up to the Balearic Islands. 600 miles behind the leaders, Sopra Group is not expected into Nice before Wednesday evening, or even Thursday

18HT Aquastarcup in Morges

Tony Bullimore ready for one more veteran rally

He is 67 years old, a lifelong smoker, a former market trader and door-to-door salesman and a man who famously survived for five days alone in the upturned hull of his yacht in the Southern Ocean, and now he wants to take on the toughest challenge of them all.

Tony Bullimore plans to set sail this summer to try to beat Dame Ellen MacArthur's solo round-the-world record of 71 days, 14 hours and 18 minutes that she set on her 75ft trimaran, B & Q, last February.

He will set sail from Hobart, in Tasmania, late next month or early in July at the wheel of his 102ft catamaran, Team Daedalus, and he has no time for those who say he is too old.

There is no doubt that Bullimore's boat could in theory break MacArthur's time. The former and much-modified ENZA New Zealand that held the fully crewed round-the-world record in 1995 is longer than MacArthur's trimaran and has a bigger rig. This means it could go faster in certain conditions, but it is also much heavier and older than MacArthur's state-of-the-art speedster, so there will be performance penalties in lighter winds and getting close to the record will be exceptionally tough.

Bullimore, who was named yachtsman of the year in 1985, has already sailed the boat twice round the world with a crew and is making modifications to enable him to sail it on his own. Whatever he says, the huge catamaran is going to be a handful and there is no doubt he could die trying to "monster" it around the Southern Ocean at his age.

Bullimore's course, starting and finishing in Hobart and sailing north in the Atlantic as far as the Azores, is very different from MacArthur's more conventional route, which started and finished at the line between Ushant and the Lizard, in Cornwall. However, his proposal falls within the rules of the world governing body for sailing records and has already been approved.

Quelle:Ed Gorman, Times of London

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