Grand Prix Guyader - David and Goliath on the Bay of Douarnenez

Flying and gliding - The wind gently made an entrance into the Bay of Dournanez and the first speed trials got underway according to plan at 10.30am. The light conditions at the start gradually settled in well and the 17 participants taking part in the Défi even saw their chance to challenge the Multi50 or the 70 foot boats involved.“I’m really itching to get out there,” admitted Bruno Sroka, world kite surf champion in 2007 and 2009, three times French champion, and triple winner of the World, European and French cups. Not too shabby. “This is my 8^th Défi in Douarnenez, the challenge is to beat the big multihulls and that can be done when there isn’t too much wind. This morning we can have a go and I would love to try and thrash them.” Seventeen flying addicts were out in this edition of the Défi including participants in windsurf (5), kite surf (8) and Mothafoil (4). Two MOD 70s had also come to join the show and ensure a real display on the water alongside Francis Joyon’s maxi trimaran, eight Multi50s, three Imoca and five Class40s.

The speed trials were held over a 2.5 mile course, and the line was laid just in front of the port of Rosmeur with participants able to start when they wanted or felt it right, every two minutes.

“This is quite a unique and pretty special event” continued Bruno Sroka, “because it is the only event in the world where you get this kind of sporting confrontation and that of course is amazing, as well as being absolutely extraordinary to watch.”

Bruno’s hunger was not quite enough to overcome the larger boats but he was within a hair’s breadth; an average of 17.86 knots on his first run, he did a better job than Safran and was only two knots behind IDEC the 33-metre trimaran.

The chain of speed runs was non-stop with the Race Committee President Loïc Ponceau calling a line crossing every four seconds. Over 250 speed runs were held throughout the day and the fastest boat was Sébastien Josse’s MOD 70 Groupe Edmond de Rothschild with an average speed of 27.03 knots.
“The sailors are being really generous to the public,” said Christian Guyader, the main Grand Prix partner, as he watched events unfold one hundred metres away from the Rosmeur dockside.

Beautiful final for the Dragons
The Grand Prix Guyader Dragon was finally validated today with three races held in total. The last two races took place this morning with 73 competitors on the start line.

With a little tension seemingly in the air, Jean Coadou’s called the black flag to quieten the troups; going unheeded by seven of the fleet who were consequently disqualified from the first race of the day. A light north easterly wind (6 knots) saw the Dragons off on their first race course that had to be modified twice.

It was similar punishment in the second and last race of the day, although winds managed to reach fifteen knots of northerly breeze, once again it was the black flag. Two general recalls were necessary to finally get the fleet going with eight teams returning in a flounder to the port having messed up the start.

Finishing in 37^th position overall in the Grand Prix classification on Ar Youleg II (FRA 365) Bruno Peyron sensibly set the tone for racing before the start,

“In the Dragon class you have to be humble. It’s a complicated and very technical boat, and with this amount of competitors, when you don’t do as well you have to know how to stay calm.”

The overall winners of the Grand Prix Dragon 2012 were Jen Christensen’s crew on the Danish boat DEN 405, with their consistent top results in each race (4^th, 3^rd, 3^rd).  Markus Wieser (UKR7) was second and Dimitry Samokhin (RUS 76) took third. The ‘worst’ performance of the three boats was a 9th for the Ukranian.

Sound regular results also paid off for the first French team, Gérard Blanc’s crew (FRA 409) who proved that he had not travelled 1500 kilometres to Douarnenez in vain. Les Cannois were 9^th in the Grand Prix Guyader Dragon.

Best average speed runs

MOD 70 : Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, 27.03 knots
Multi50 : FenêtréA Cardinal, 20.74 knots
IDEC : 19.69 knots
IMOCA : Safran, 14.02 knots
Class40 : Talanta, 11.34 knots
Mothafoil : Bruno André, 17.75 knots
Kite : Bruno Sroka, 17.86 knots
Windsurf : Martin Gaveriaux, 17.37 knots

 Tomorrow the show continues in Rosmeur with speed trials from 10.30 onwards.

Results for all series : HERE