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dimanche 27 avril 2008

Congressional Cup 2008

Début demain 28 avril de la "Congressional Cup" match racing à Long Beach California.


Les bateaux sont de Catalina 37 les plus grands bateaux du circuit.
L'équipage est composé de 6 personnes.
Julien Falxa aux réglages, Gilles André en n°1, Xaviet Husson à la grand voile, Stephane Christidis à la tactique et Gilles Morelle comme mast man et embraqueur.

Les principaux adversaires seront dans l'ordre de la ranking :
Damien Iehl FRA, PA Morvant FRA, A Arduzov RUS, J Berntsson SUE, S Minoprio NZL, Van Tol USA, Dave Perry USA, Gavin Brady NZL, S Dickson USA.

samedi 26 avril 2008

Premiers essais en mer pour "AUDI Q8"


One by one, the TP52 teams are getting ready for the imminent start of the 2008 Audi Medcup circuit. On Sunday afternoon it was the turn of Ricardo Simoneschi's AUDI TP52 Sailing Team powered by Q8 to hit the waters for the first time ever.

The yacht, a Vrolijk design, was built by Hakes Marine in Wellington, New Zealand and launched a month ago. After fitting her out, the team presented it in Genoa during the weekend and immediately thereafter carried out the first test sails under sunny skies and light spring winds. The AUDI TP52 Sailing Team powered by Q8 will now train onboard the "Silver Surfer" for a few more days before she is transfered to Alicante, for the inaugural event of the 2008 season, from May 12 to 18.

Ricardo Simoneschi will be at the helm of the Silver Surfer while the rest of the crew reads like a who's who of top professional sailing, with a number of a America's Cup pedigree sailors. Tommaso Chieffi will be calling tactics, Philippe Presti will trim the mainsail and a number of ex Luna Rossa sailors will hold the key positions, such as Manuel Modena, Massimo Gherarducci, Michele Cannoni or Paolo Bassani.

dimanche 13 avril 2008

Paolo Cian victoire 2/1 devant l'équipage de Philippe Presti à l'Open de España - Soria Natural



Paolo Cian and his Shosholoza crew were the winners of the 5th edition of the Open de España - Soria Natural, the ISAF Grade 1 match racing event that took place from April 8th to 12th in Calpe.

It is Spain’s most important match racing event and the only to have the newly-established title of qualifier regatta for the World Match Racing Tour. These events, although not forming part of the circuit, play a significant role since the winners are invited to one of the World Match Racing Tour’s official stages. Each WMRT stage can have up to two qualifier events, and Calpe’s Open de España –Soria Natural winner gets a slot to the starting line of the Saint Moritz Match Race, held in the Swiss city, from September 2nd to 7th.

Unfortunately, today’s racing took place under very difficult and demanding conditions, very similar to Thursday and Friday. There was a constant fight between the sea and land breeze that resulted in constantly fluctuating and shifting winds. These trying conditions put race officials at test and forced them to cancel racing twice during the day.

The semifinals started at around 12pm and Cian faced Russian Andrey Arbuzov whom he beat without great difficulty 3 to 0. In the other semifinal, Presti had to face the young up-and-coming Australian, and last year's winner, Torvar Mirsky. After losing the first race, Presti finally prevailed over the young Australian by 3 to 1. A penalty at the 3rd race and unforgivable crew errors at the 4th one cost Mirsky the spot in the finals of the event.

Presti continued his winning streak into the first race of the finals. After a close prestart, he crossed the starting line two boatlenghths ahead of Cian and never lost his lead. Cian was unable to pass him and lost the race.

In the following two races, Cian demonstrated his excellent match-racing skills and the reason he's third in the ISAF Match Racing rankings. He had a plan, to force Presti to commit errors and get penalties and he stuck to it. Presti received two penalties, one at the top mark of the second race and another one during the prestart period of the third and last race. Although Cian never managed to gain a great lead, the late-afternoon excruciatingly light conditions (as seen in the photos) meant it was impossible for Presti to make up the lost distance after offloading his penalties.

In addition to Cian, Shosholoza's crew consisted of Teva Plichart, Pierluigi de Felice and Pierluigi Fornelli. During the 32nd America's Cup, Plichart was grinder with Areva Challenge while de Felice was a trimmer at Mascalzone Latino.

« Nous sommes ravis car nous avons fait une belle régate avec une montée en puissance tous les jours et une belle adaptation de Xavier Chris et Julien. Ce qui est dur avec le match racing, c’est que quand tu ne gagnes pas, tu termines par une défaite mais nous avons bien navigué et nous avions toutes les cartes en main pour gagner mais Paolo a finalement été le plus fort. Nous allons maintenant participer à la Congressionnal Cup, à Los Angeles, à partir du 28 avril. C’est une très belle épreuve, une grande classique du circuit qui se dispute sur de plus grands bateaux avec 6 équipiers. »


Classement Final :

1/ Paolo Cian ITA
2/ Ph PRESTI - Xavier Husson - Chris André - Juien Falxa FRA
3/ Torvar Mirsky AUS

4/ Andrei Arbuzof RUS
5/ Ian Ainslie RSA
6/ PA Morvan FRA
7/ Bertrand PACE FRA
8/ Damien IEHL FRA
9/ E Neugodnikov RUS

etc....

Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

vendredi 11 avril 2008

Team PhP en 1/2 finale contre Torvar Mirsky


Confrontation’s level is getting higher being everyday a bit closer to the end. On the third racing day, the signal to start wasn’t given on time. The wind started to blow at 1p.m with a stable intensity and direction with approximately 16 knots.

This favourable weather conditions made the pace of events much more agile, allowed finishing the “one against one” races and for the first time in R.C.N.C it was possible to do the quarter finals, in which only compete 8 of the 12 boats.

The quarter finals were very tough and the audience enjoyed to the maximum while watching the huge competition between crews. Some of them made great moves trying to disqualify its opponent, obviously no one wanted to lose the opportunity to go to finals. The semi-finals would be the last day and the classified crews are: the past edition winner Torvar Mirsky (AUS), followed by Paolo Cian (FRA), Philippe Presti (FRA) and Andrey Arbuzov (RUS).

On the contrary, Bertrand Pacé (FRA), Damien Iehl (FRA), Ian Aislie (RSA) and Pierre A. Morvan (FRA), won’t go for the prize. The Open de España fifth edition would have the most hard-fought and attractive final since its beginning. The skippers have shown, after three days of tough competition, a high level and only one of them will get the trophy.

Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

mercredi 9 avril 2008

L'équipe de France de MR se donne rendez-vous à Calpé


Photo Gilles Martin-Raget

Les phases qualificatives de l’Open d’Espagne ont débuté aujourd’hui à Calpé. Cette épreuve est une nouvelle occasion, après le Marseille International Match Race, de voir évoluer la toute jeune équipe de France puisque trois équipages - sur les cinq que constituent ce collectif - ont choisi de mettre ce grade 1 à leur programme.

Il faut préciser qu’en plus de son intérêt purement sportif, l’Open d’Espagne a le statut de « qualifier event » c’est-à-dire qu’il permet à son vainqueur de se sélectionner pour le St Moritz Match Race, épreuve automnale du très fermé World Tour. Cette perspective est intéressante pour les bleus engagés en Espagne car si Mathieu Richard et Sébastien Col sont régulièrement invités sur le circuit mondial, rien n’est systématique pour Damien Iehl, Philippe Presti ou Bertrand Pacé qui doivent aller chercher leurs sélections sur des régates de ce type. Pour mémoire, le circuit mondial fonctionne sur un système d'invitations laissées à la discrétion des organisateurs. A ce trio labellisé équipe de France s’ajoute l’équipage de Pierre Antoine Morvan qui a lui aussi bénéficié des apports de Thierry Poirey, le coach venu accompagné les tricolores sur place. Les finales se dérouleront dimanche prochain.

Seb Destremau

Equipages français engagés :
Damien Iehl (APCC Voile Sportive)
François Verdier (APCC Voile Sportive)
Fred Guilmin (APCC Voile Sportive)
Mikaël Mergui (CN Salette Carqueiranne)

Philippe Presti (CV Arcachon)
Gilles André (YC La Grande Motte)
Julien Falxa (CV Arcachon)
Erwan Israël (COYCH)

Bertrand Pacé (SR Brest)
Bernard Labro (Cap au large)
Tanguy Cariou (Douarnenez Voile)
Benoit Briand (SN Saint Quay Portrieux)

Pierre-Antoine Morvan (SR Vannes)
Nicolas Pauchet (CN Lorient)
Devan Lebihan (CN Lorient)
Mathieu Renault (SR Vannes)