Groovederci out of the night

What a suspens ! Strong tides and lack of wind makes the outcome of the last offshore race in Atlantic quite hard to predict. Who ever said that the art of sailing was like the art of war was right : the winner is the first who is able to adapt to any changes that may occurs. You had to be one of these warriors to get a good result in Royan.

First the fleet had to leave the Vendée port of Talmont before the night and not after as it was schedulded because of a bad weather forecast. And then, after the boats sailed around the islands of Ré and Oleron, everybody expected an arrival just before the dawn. It was not to be. The wind just died as the tide was slowly bringing the fleet to the finish line. The ETA which was 5 am was then turn to 7 am and in the end, the first boat arrived at 8 o’clock. You had to have iron nerves to keep your concentration. At seven, the victory was supposed to be for Courrier Dunkerque. But at eight the winner was Groovederci. A great result for the American team lead by Deneen Demourkas. The skipper always wanted to fight for the first place but had suffer some serious under achievement. Anyhow this result owe nothing to luck but to the dedication of a strong crew assist by some top french navigators. “Our start was not so good explains Deneen Demourkas but we succeed to be in a good position at the top mark and then we gain, boat after boat. By the end of the night we were in front of the fleet fighting with Courrier Dunkerque and Oman Sail’s Renaissance. Sometimes it was us, sometimes it was them, the final result might have been different, they should have stopped the race before entering the bay”.

For sure, sailing with no wind is something you want to avoid even though Groovederci made the best of it. It is the first time the American team succed in an offshore race. The second boat to cross the line was Courrier Dunkerque, not a surprise. The very solid team from Dunkirk is at ease on the long distance race. They are closing the gap with the leader Nouvelle Caledonie who makes a ten. A student boat is third on the line, Team SOG Safran who did a brilliant start in Dunkirk
and then had some poor results in Britany is back again, now with the help of Antoine Koch, a french singlehanded specialist. The fourth Farr 30 is Oman sail’s Renaissance skippered by Rob Greenhalgh. The boat from Oman is just making a success of it’s french campaign : playing at the top level with a team including omani’s sailors. Well done guys ! Ile de France, who finished seventh, takes advantage of the poor result of TPM Coych to come back on the top three. These two boats are just swaping places every day, so we will have to wait till the end to know who’s in for the bronze medal.

*Results of the day / Leg Talmont Saint Hilaire - Royan :*
1 Groovederci (Deneen Demourkas)
2 Courrier Dunkerque (Daniel Souben)
3 Team SOG - SAFRAN (Julien Villion / Quentin Ponroy)
4 Oman Sail's Renaissance (Rob Greenhalgh)
5 Purflo Les Thermes Marins - St Malo (François Lebourdais / Pierre
Hingant / Quentin Grueau)
6 Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention (Jérôme Clerc / Bruno Barbarin)
7 Ile de France (Jimmy Pahun / Vincent Aillaud)
8 Côtes d'Armor (Stéphane Letertre)
9 Manche Basse Normandie (Benoit Charon)
10 Nouvelle Calédonie (Bertrand Pacé / Vincent Portugal)
11 TU Delft (Bert Schandevyl)
12 CSC - HEC - Ecole Navale (Hervé Gautier)
13 Ville du Port - Région Réunion (Thomas Terte / Thomas Pasquier / Noé
Delpech)
14 Normale Sup Lagardère (Eric Brezellec)
15 ESSEC – Hanploi (Damien Seguin)
16 Brest Grandes Ecoles - ENSIETA - ESCB - ISEN (Tangi Mahé)
17 Mummaduck (Laurent Pagès)
18 Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCH (Fabien Henry)
19 Port de plaisance de Roscoff - CCI de Morlaix (Julien Berthélémé /
François Liron)
20 Bienne Voile - SRS I (Stefan Seger)
21 BRUNEL (Peter Jan Postma / Bart Verwerft)
22 Bred (Eric Drouglazet / Christophe Bouvet)
23 Bienne Voile - SRS II (Lorenz Muller)
24 Nantes - Saint Nazaire (Jean Queveau)
25 INSA SOPRA TSP TEM (Thomas Rahier / Nicolas Andrieu)
26 Région de Bruxelles Capitale Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (Cyril
Michel / Laurent Declercq)
27 Arts et Métiers - Centrale Paris Défi SEP (Clément Hochart)
DNS SUPELEC (François Isopet / Pierre Joly)

Overall results before jury :
1 Nouvelle Calédonie (Bertrand Pacé / Vincent Portugal) 67 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque (Daniel Souben) 91 pts
3 Ile de France (Jimmy Pahun / Vincent Aillaud) 137 pts
4 Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCH (Fabien Henry) 147 pts
5 Groovederci (Deneen Demourkas) 158 pts
6 Oman Sail's Renaissance (Rob Greenhalgh) 162 pts
7 Manche Basse Normandie (Benoit Charon) 185,2 pts
8 Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention (Jérôme Clerc / Bruno Barbarin)
213 pts
9 CSC - HEC - Ecole Navale (Hervé Gautier) 221 pts
10 Purflo Les Thermes Marins - St Malo (François Lebourdais / Pierre
Hingant / Quentin Grueau) 230 pts
11 Team SOG - SAFRAN (Julien Villion / Quentin Ponroy) 257 pts
12 Mummaduck (Laurent Pagès) 258 pts
13 Normale Sup Lagardère (Eric Brezellec) 289 pts
14 Côtes d'Armor (Stéphane Letertre) 320 pts
15 TU Delft (Bert Schandevyl) 342 pts
16 Brest Grandes Ecoles - ENSIETA - ESCB - ISEN (Tangi Mahé) 345 pts
17 Ville du Port - Région Réunion (Thomas Terte / Thomas Pasquier / Noé
Delpech) 351 pts
18 INSA SOPRA TSP TEM (Thomas Rahier / Nicolas Andrieu) 385 pts
19 Bred (Eric Drouglazet / Christophe Bouvet) 391,4 pts
20 Bienne Voile - SRS II (Lorenz Muller) 400 pts
21 Port de plaisance de Roscoff - CCI de Morlaix (Julien Berthélémé /
François Liron) 402 pts
22 Nantes - Saint Nazaire (Jean Queveau) 424 pts
23 Bienne Voile - SRS I (Stefan Seger) 442 pts
24 BRUNEL (Peter Jan Postma / Bart Verwerft) 449 pts
25 ESSEC – Hanploi (Damien Seguin) 462 pts
26 Région de Bruxelles Capitale Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (Cyril
Michel / Laurent Declercq) 547 pts
27 Arts et Métiers - Centrale Paris Défi SEP (Clément Hochart) 575 pts
28 SUPELEC (François Isopet / Pierre Joly) 665 pts