Multihull One Design-ORMA 70

Latest news article from the MOD70 European tour site:

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/news/455/the-norfolk-slalom-championship.html

The Norfolk Slalom championship


The second night at sea for the five MOD70’s on the first leg of the MOD70 European Tour, racing between Kiel, Germany and Dun Laoghaire, Ireland sees the fleet compacted by the light winds as they race some 25 miles NNE of Great Yarmouth off England’s Norfolk coast early this Tuesday morning.


After racing more than 680 miles of a theoretical course of 1238 miles the five MOD70’s are separated by some 42 miles from leader Spindrift racing skippered by Yann Guichard to the fifth placed Race for Water of Stève Ravussin. Race for Water which has Volvo Ocean Race winner Franck Cammas as navigator have regained more than 30 miles since yesterday afternoon.

"It's been a beautiful night with the moon and some clouds, very nice sailing! In fact the wind began to slow when we arrived on the Dutch coast: a bubble of high pressure crossing the southern North Sea and we were quite slow. Now we are on the other side of the bubble near the English coast and we have fifteen knots of wind from the South-West. We must be careful because there are platforms everywhere and must slalom a bit! We are on a long tack towards the entrance of the Thames. "reported Michel Desjoyeaux aboard second placed FONCIA at 0500hrs UTC this morning

Speeds have remained decent through much of the second night which proved relatively straightforward, concentrating on boat speed and changing gears for the fluctuations in wind speeds which were mainly between 5kts -12kts. For a spell as the leaders closed the Dutch coast last night the winds went very light, but the biggest test has been fulfilling the many marks of an obstacle course, missing sandbanks, oil and gas platforms, wind farms and maritime traffic channels. There will be little chance for further gains and losses over the next ten hours, 100 miles upwind to the Dover where the next transition zone is expected. There, with almost calm conditions, further compression is expected as a second high pressure area bars the entrance to the Channel.

FONCIA trailed Spindrift racing by just less than 10 miles around dawn this morning, Yann Guichard’s crew slightly more to the south and upwind of FONCIA. In third, Seb Josse’s Groupe Edmond de Rothschild have lost some small miles to the leaders but mostly the order at the top is down to how hard they pushed on that first night at sea when the winds hit 30kts.

“ We lost a few miles on the way out of Skagerrak mainly due to the state of the sea: some attacked more than others. After that the leaders were slightly favored by the better conditions at thefront of the fleet, but the deltas are not prohibitive. We begin to recover them from that first night ... " said Josse this morning.



Quotes:

Michel Desjoyeaux aboard FONCIA."It's a beautiful night with the moon and few clouds, nice sailing, ! In fact, it began to slow in light winds as we reached the Dutch coast: a bubble of high pressure crossing the southern North Sea and we were slow. Now we are on the other side of the bubble near the English coast and we have fifteen knots of wind from the South-West. We need to be careful because there are platforms everywhere.”

Seb Josse, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild: "We are chasing hard to catch our rivals while making a slalom between sandbars, maritime traffic and oil platforms! From the tip of Skagen Denmark, we have had changing conditions, against the wind, but not necessarily unpleasant. When we enter the Channel it will be clearer with less course marks ... The weather situation is as we had on the routing and there are no options for us before the next zone of calms we expect in about ten hours, approaching the Pas de Calais. There is not really an option because we stick to the course through the buoys near the English coast, but it is an important transition area for this first step. Differences will be the same until Dover or shortly after because it is difficult to make up miles in these wind conditions. Initially we lost a few miles on passing Skagerrak mainly due to the state of the sea: some attacked more than others. Then the leaders were then slightly favored by the more better conditions in front of the fleet, but the deltas are not prohibitive.

 

CNN Maínsail this week brings a three part report on the MOD 70 and the Kris Transat.

Find the three Videos here:

http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/main.sail/

Best Regards, Michel

 

The MOD70's are travelling in a relatively tight group. Spindrift Racing are again proving their mastery of the boat and pushing hard to stay in front of the pack. They hugged the English coast more tightly than their competitors and have been able to maintain a small buffer to the rest of the fleet.

 

It's a tight group of MOD70's approaching the finish line in Dublin (Dun Laoghaire). Foncia has managed to draw out a tiny lead on Spindrift and the top three boats are within 1 nm of each other.

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/highlights/478/metres-not-miles-in-it-in-three-way-fight-to-the-line.html

Tracker is here:

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/positions.html

Looks like Foncia has moved slightly further ahead of Spindrift now .3nm with 5.3nm to go looks like it will be a test of who can coax the last bit of performance out of their boat.

 

Spindrift have closed to .2nm of Foncia with 1.6nm remaining it will be a close finish. Now Foncia's lead is down to .1nm and Spindrift is carrying better speed. I think Foncia held on but not sure tracker still updating. OK not sure what is happening with the tracker but Edmond De Rothschild is shown in the lead now then Spindrift and Foncia.

 

Tracker Glitch

Must have been a tracker glitch Foncia just held onto win followed home closely by Spindrift and Edmond de Rothschild.

 

Final winning margin of Foncia 32 seconds over Spindrift!

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/news/480/foncia-wins-at-the-wire.html

Foncia wins at the wire

From an incredibly close finish which saw all three top teams arrive at the Dun Laoghaire, Dublin line within 77 seconds of each other, it was Michel Desjoyeaux and his crew of FONCIA which stole victory on the MOD70 European Tour first leg of the from Kiel to Dublin.

Desjoyeaux and his crew of FONCIA which stole victory on the MOD70 European Tour first leg of the from Kiel to Dublin.

In a heart stopping race to the line in very gentle breezes the winners were no more than 200 metres ahead of second placed Yann Guichard and crew on Spindrift racing with Sebastien Josse and the crew of Groupe Edmond de Rothschild no more than 300 metres behind.

The 1238 miles leg which started Sunday afternoon in Kiel was decided almost on the finish line.

FONCIA finally seized the lead with less than 15 miles to the finish, overhauling Guichard’s Spindrift racing which had lead consistently since last Monday morning when they passed Desjoyeaux’s crew on the NW Danish coast. In the final hours the two leaders were only 3-500 metres apart, with FONCIA only just holding on to win.

Finish times Dun Laoghaire
1-Michel Desjoyeaux (FONCIA) 23h 19m 09s Wed 5th September
2-Yann Guichard (Spindrift racing) 23h 19m 41s Wed 5th September
3-Sébastien Josse (Groupe Edmond de Rothschild) 23h 20m 26s 5th September

 

"Final winning margin of Foncia 32 seconds over Spindrift!"

And thats what one design is all about ! Awesome,wicked, epic !

 

Latest video from MODtv this is the youtube copy which seems to run better on my computer. Great racing and very enjoyable to watch hope they all get a rest cause they all look knackered after that effort.



The most recent Destopnews has a section on the ESS and MOD70's the MOD70 section is at 5.10 with some spectacular video of the MOD's racing in close quarters.

 

Michel Desjoyeaux on the currently Foncia sponsored MOD70 has been doing well lately.

New round the Island record in the Artemis Challenge now officially ratified by the WSSRC.

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=108462

Doing well in Dublin as well winning the first day of racing. Spindrift came in first in race 1 with Foncia second and Foncia won the next two races.

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/news/506/dublin-double-for-foncia.html

 

Spindrift has won the inshore racing in Dublin

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/news/521/black-is-the-colour-in-dun-laoghaire.html

Black is the colour in Dun Laoghaire


After six City Races it took one exciting Speed Match tie-break finale, a short out-and -back reaching sprint, to decide the overall winner of the Dun Laoghaire City Races. Yann Guichard's Spindrift racing finish first among equals.


From two days of tight competition in a great mix of breezes Spindrift racing, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and FONCIA finished locked together with the same 63 points aggregate.

But it was Yann Guichard’s team on the black and white hulled MOD70 Spindrift racing which won the start and broke the finish line first in the showdown, to secure the overall City Race series in Dun Laoghaire.

It was a fitting and very exciting conclusion to a fabulous day of inshore racing for the MOD70 European Tour’s second stage.

After Dublin Bay saw an incredibly close finish to the 1238 miles first offshore leg from Kiel when FONCIA, Spindrift racing and Groupe Edmond de Rothschild finished with 77 seconds after three and half days racing, the inshore series carried on the same level of suspense and tension which is becoming increasingly associated with this exciting MOD70 one design fleet.

Friday’s racing was in light and fickle breezes when FONCIA won two races but today the SW’ly winds topped 20kts at times.

Complemented by perfect September sunshine which helped draw sizeable crowds to the East Pier to watch the racing, the strong breezes placed the greatest premium yet on crew work and manoeuvres round the compact race course and over the piece Guichard’s crew were the better starters and the most fluid around the turning marks.

Spindrift racing looked to have set themselves up to win the first race of the day when they lead down the first downwind leg but they were passed on the short, fast reaching leg by Groupe Edmond de Rothschild who went on to take first gun. With the mark for the leeward offset mark drifting, race direction had set a RIB with flag M as a mark and alerted the fleet by VHF.

The leading two boats went to the drifting mark whilst both Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and Musandam-Oman Sail both rounded the substitute mark-boat and gained.

In the second race of the day perfect timing and placement was the key to Spindrift racing’s flying start with the breeze up at its strongest, 18-21kts, and Guichard’s team were unstoppable, going on to win.

FONCIA made an uncharacteristically slow start and struggled up to finish fourth, pipped to third by Sidney Gavignet’s Musandam-Oman Sail.

Race 6 saw Race for Water profit at the top end of the windward leg to lead Musandam-Oman Sail in second around the course. But with Groupe Edmond de Rothschild rounding third, FONCIA fourth and Spindrift fifth the final order meant these three closely matched teams all finished with the same points aggregate.

When it came to the high pressure finale it was Spindrift racing which, again, won the start, accelerating away to lead round the one turning mark and win the series overall.

The final result may be still be subjected to a jury decision following a protest about Race 4.



Dun Laoghaire City Race, Overall after 6 races

1- Spindrift racing EUR (Yann Guichard FRA) 12+11+9+11+12+8 = 63 points

2- Groupe Edmond de Rothschild FRA (Sébastien Josse FRA) 9+10+11+12+11+10 = 63 points

3- FONCIA FRA (Michel Desjoyeaux FRA ) 11+12+12+10+9+9 = 63 points

4- Race for Water SUI (Stève Ravussin SUI) 10+9+10+8+8+12 = 57 points

5-Musandam-Oman Sail OMA (Sidney Gavignet FRA) 8+8+8+9+10+11 = 54 points



Speed Match

1- Spindrift racing(Yann Guichard)

2- Groupe Edmond deRothschild (Sébastien Josse)

3- Musandam-Oman Sail(Sidney Gavignet)

4- Race for Water(Stève Ravussin)

5- FONCIA (MichelDesjoyeaux)

 

The MOD70's are off on their next leg to Cascais (Portugal). Spindrift racing won the in port event but still trail Foncia overall by 5 points. Group Edmond de Rothschild won the start of the ocean race event to Cascais. They have to round the Fastnet Rock then head South. It would be great if someone would put a webcam up on that rock so many interesting boats going around it all the time.

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/positions.html

 

A video from the inshore racing in Dublin. Some races were nice and windy, let them power around in style.

 

Spindrift is holding a narrow lead over the rest of the fleet. Weather conditions are not particularly favourable but still the boatspeed of the MOD's are impressive.

Ups and downs, lows and highs en route to Cascais


Since leading around the famous Fastnet Rock at around 0730hrs UTC this morning, Yann Guichard and the crew of Spindrift racing profited from an initial gain but as they passed the latitude of the Scillies and then Ushant – the NW tip of France – they had their four MOD70 European Tour rivals astern abreast in a line, all in equally hot pursuit.


Spindrift racing, which lead for 90 per cent of Leg 1 from Kiel to Dun Laoghaire and then won the City Races series on Dublin Bay, had eked out some 10 miles of advantage on the chasing pack as they continue a southerly course for Cascais, Portugal where they are expected Wednesday.



Their initial gain was on the two tacks out to the rock last night but through today they have held a steady lead. Though most had expected to be through a slow moving cold front earlier, and so into faster, reaching conditions that was not expected until the afternoon. Indeed the front has been moving at much the same speed as the MOD70’s



Trimmer-helm Yann Eliès, the winner of the Solitaire du Figaro this summer, reported early this Monday afternoon from Spindrift racing:



“The front has still not passed us and we are about 60 degrees to the wind and in the middle of the afternoon it should switch to the NW, we can set the gennaker and make better speed in more comfortable conditions than we have had in the last 24 hours which have been a bit rock’n’roll. The seas have begun to calm down a bit but we can sense the approach of the trough, the wind has dropped a bit.”

“What we had along the Irish coast was bouncy and we slammed a lot. But the boats are going very well and the sun will get stronger.”



In the very close and exacting racing small problems have cost miles, or even fractions of a mile. Stève Ravussin’s Spindrift racing had been leading and in close contention last night until they had to slow to replace the puller which controls the main halyard hook. Losing an hour while they hoisted their bowman up the mast to fix it. But this afternoon they are in contention, though now 16 miles behind the leader.



Michel Desjoyeaux and the team on FONCIA lie second but spent some time replacing the rudder fuse and downhaul after the main rudder struck an object. They lie second, virtually even with Musandam-Oman Sail who have remained in the top three since before Tuskar Rock last night and were pacing the European Tour leaders well this afternoon.



Speeds had picked up late afternoon, to over 20kts, indicating that the chance to set gennakers progressively has arrived and faster, easier southbound progress is on the cards.



At the moment the direct route south is the most logical with the fleet lined up side by side. But there will be a tendency to slide west as a second front approaches, but ahead there is a big high pressure ridge which is centred over Portugal which will bring a more N’ly regime, fresh at first but dropping as they descend the Iberian peninsula. And so the fleet is likely to compact again before Cascais.

Michel Desjoyeaux, FRA skipper FONCIA FRA:
“This afternoon we struck something with the main rudder and the fuse did its job and the rudder came up. We tried several time to get it back but it was slowing us down and as we had Gitana on our case after three unsuccessful attempts with the rudder refusing to go down and lock in place we set off without it. In a reasonably big sea and with 25kts of wind in fact the float rudder did its job well enough. When the wind died down we found out what the problem was with the downhaul rope on the rudder which was displaced and not letting the rudder down. We were forced to cut it and then suspend someone above the water, in the harness, doing some 20kts above the waves.

We sorted the rope into the right place and are back on course.”



Yann Eliès FRA, trimmer-helm Spindrift racing (EUR):
“We passed the Fastnet in the early morning upwind and since then we have been on the wind on the other tack. We have cracked the sheets a little now and are making 20kts. The front has still not passed us and we are about 60 degrees to the wind and in the middle of the afternoon it should switch to the NW, we can set the gennaker and make better speed in more comfortable conditions than we have had in the last 24 hours which have been a bit rock’n’roll. The seas have begun to calm down a bit but . we can sense the approaching of the trough, the wind has dropped a bit. What we had along the Irish coast was bouncy and we slammed a lot. But the boats are going very well and the sun will get stronger. We saw the silhouette of a boat against the grey sky this morning. I took off my foulies this afternoon and we can get some rest and get more into the watch system.”

Brian Thompson, GBR, watch-captain Musandam-Oman Sail OMA:
“ It is 1330hrs UTC in the afternoon and we are having a very close sail in 22-25kts of wind, going south from Fastnet Rock with FONCIA about a mile away, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild about another mile away and Race for Water behind. So we are battling it out for second at the moment with Spindrift racing just a few miles ahead of us. We had a great sail out of Dun Laoghaire which was a great stop, we had a great stop there. We had a beautiful beat down the east coast of Ireland with the fantastic scenery. During the night we were on the south coast of Ireland, passing Cork and Kinsale. And then just after dawn at the Fastnet was spectacular, for Mohsin it was his first rounding of that famous lighthouse. From there we were going upwind, just slightly cracked off now. We are almost level with NW France, soon be level with La Rochelle, across the Bay of Biscay and it will get warmer and soon we’ll be off Cape Finisterre. Tonight we will be getting into lighter airs as we get into the high pressure and we will have to gybe and then coming out on port gybe ion NE’ly winds instead of the SW’lies we have just now, we will be on the bottom side of the high and with a good heading.”

 

Musandam/Oman Sail have taken the lead. They headed a little further offshore and have benefited from better conditions. Lots of lead changes on this leg you can view the positions at a given time by replaying the race using the slider on the bottom of the tracker.

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/positions.html