EC France - St. Raphael

April 10, 2007
Eurocup in St Raphael

* Ian Pinnell and Carl Biggon win the Eurocup in Saint Raphael
* Ian Pinnell takes the first round of the Eurocup in front of a very strong German contingent this easter week-end.
This was the first time Saint Raphael Yach Club was hosting the Eurocup after many years in Cavalaire. Racing was excellent and every team who made it was thrilled with the change of venue

* Full results are available on the French Federation Website here

* Sailors from 11 different european countries and 76 teams from 9 countries as follow:
30 French teams
29 German teams
5 Swiss
5 UK
2 Belgium
1 Italy
1 Polish
1 Danish
1 Luxemburg
+
1 canadian crew
1 spanish crew
* Interesting to note is the Swiss and French teams coming down to race the Eurocup in much greater number than usual. Very talented German contingent with 8 teams out of the 10 first placing and won 5 of the 7 races: Wunderschön!
* Weather conditions were awesome - nice, sunny, warm - for the three days. Light conditions in thermal breeze from 6 up to 10 knots for all races - ranging from 120° to 160° South East. Great facilities on shore. The venue is great with many restaurants and hotels at walking distance, trails to walk or bike on, beaches, and the club is great too. Welcome from the club was excellent and sure, organization will improve over time on the parking where too many trailors were on the way. 7 races with tight racing up to race 6.
Very challenging place with unexpected windshifts - Unlike usual thermal winds shifting right in our hemisphere, the thermal in St Raphael shifts right or left by up to 30° - This made up for some fantastic comebacks in race 3 and 7 especially.
Ian Pinnell with his new crew: Carl GIBBON was consistant throughout the regatta .
I believe the fastest boat was Volker NIEDER and Stephen HEISING - at least they were pointing beautifully in the light conditions - Their sails are almost transparent with unusual shapes.. The key to good races was as usual excellent start. We used line start for 5 of the 7 races and two rabbit start procedures only. Overall we had up to 10 recalls in such a large fleet. Despite some not so good starting procedures, everyone enjoyed very much the regatta and the racing course proposing some very different race conditions from Cavalaire.
I believe the place is fantastic and I wish we had some more wind in this beautiful bay.

Report by Jean-Baptiste Dupont, photo by Georges Jakab

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