Juan Carlos Sanchis Mari from Spain sailing a Bakewell-White 2003 design (ex-Chris Sayer's boat) has won the Transat 6.50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia Prologue - the 'practice' race. Sanchis Mari and his two-man crew (maximum 4 crew allowed for this race) made the best of the extremely light, shifty conditions and were able to monopolise on their good start and work their way through to a relatively clear, constant breeze.
The flat conditions on the bay of La Rochelle, which spanned as far as the eye could see this morning, as the 72 Mini 6.50 sailors made their way out the start line, fortunately improved and after one general recall and a postponement, a light, but shifty breeze finally filled in at midday. Getting the best start in today's conditions was imperative with those starting in the middle of the line and taking a quick hitch over onto port as soon as possible benefiting enormously just minutes from the line.
Sailing with Swiss sailor Tobias Hochreutener and his mast maker Croatian Weko Orlandini (Fibre Masts) aboard Complete Freight - a Mergui 2002 designed Proto, I was lucky enough to experience the joys of a port-tack flyer and, as we crossed the majority of the fleet, I knew we were onto a good thing.
Upwind towards our first windward mark up the middle of the course was definitely the best option with those either side of the course suffering badly from shifty, incredibly light winds. Although we didn't see much more than 5kts throughout the race at least we kept moving (apart from running over the occasional super-sized jelly fish) and, together with the others around us, including Sanchis Mari, were far enough ahead to judge what was happening on the two/three-mile leg ahead.
Once we had the layline established and had tacked over to starboard we were able to see clearly the result of our super-swift beat. Lying in second place just a couple of boat lengths astern of Sanchis Mari, and with Matthieu Cassanas snapping at our heels to windward and Corentin Douguet - the Transat 6.50 favourite - several places behind, the pressure was on, particularly as we'd just noticed the shortened-course flag flying from the committee boat. Chatting about the boat's performance Hochreutener said: "Basically we couldn't have asked for better conditions, these are the sort of conditions this boat loves. She one of the, if not the, lightest boats in the fleet and unlike some of the other Protos such as the beamy Manuard designs, she's relative narrow design which gives her the edge in these conditions."
A smart bit of sailing by Cassanas who basically sailed over the top of us in his Villenave 2000 Proto, relegated us to third position as we approached the finish. And the worst was yet to come. Just a second or two before the finish line Adrien Hardy - a young, extremely talented, French 420 sailor - sailing a 1997 Magnen design snuck up underneath us and with a fraction more speed, just managed to pip us at the post and take third.
A short race it may have been but there was definitely no lack of excitement. And to finish in fourth place in such a competitive fleet was a great experience. A positive Hochreutener concluded: "Fourth, what a great position to finish in a practice race. This gives me just a bit of room for improvement. I'm now really looking forward to the start on Saturday. The boat's feeling good and I feel well prepared for my first Mini Transat race experience."
Sue Pelling/Yachting World, 14 September 2005
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