Groupama 40 and series winners Oman Sail Masirah in Spain. Image copyright Thierry Martinez/Sea&Co/OC Events.
by Vincent Borde and Caroline Muller
And the outright winner of the iShares Cup 2009 circuit is... Oman Sail Masirah! It took until the last race of the last day for the verdict to finally fall! Pete Cumming's crew pipped Gitana Extreme-LCF Rothschild Group to the post. Indeed the latter boat, helmed by Frenchman Yann Guichard, lost out on the championship crown by just one point. Loïck Peyron at the helm of Oman Sail Renaissance took third place, just a handful of points ahead of Groupama 40 skippered by Franck Cammas, who came 4th in the general ranking. As such the French crews appear very much at the front of the pack in this international circuit!
Groupama 40 on the Andalusian podium:
Franck Cammas and his men were full of smiles on arriving back at the pontoon this afternoon. And for good reason with their third podium place of the season. Determined and concentrated, the crew of Groupama 40 won one race of the six run today and just missed out on the top spot in the final race to the benefit of Gitana. Throughout the past three days of this Spanish competition, Franck, Tanguy, Benoît and Fred haven't given up, continuing to make progress with every tack.
Three podium places out of the six events raced:
Though the rounds in Venice, Hyères and Cowes were difficult for the Groupama 40 team, one cannot fail to notice the progress the crew has made throughout the season. After two fifth places in Venice and Hyères, one sixth place in Cowes, Cammas and his men racked up three podium finishes in Kiel, Amsterdam and Almeria.
Despite this ascent, Groupama 40 is just out of contention in the championship ranking. However, the conclusions drawn from this season's racing by the skipper of the Groupama multihulls are far from negative:
What are your impressions of the iShares circuit?
"I was a little surprised by the type of races as they were a lot shorter than those I had a chance to race in during the two events from previous editions. The race zones were quite small as a rule. If you look at the rankings, you can see that the crews at the front of the pack are always the same; and that also holds true for those who are at the tail end of the rankings. This leads me to believe that the sporting aspect of the circuit is really valuable. Looking at it another way, the organisation goes to great lengths for the public; which is something I find interesting because it's the only event, along with the Clairfontaine which is on a much smaller scale, where the spectators can witness our nautical jousting.
This circuit represents a very good compromise between sport, spectacle and media."
What is your assessment of this first iShares season with Groupama 40?
"Despite our last three podium places, we lack consistency. It's a pretty unusual exercise; the racing isn't very conventional due to the small size of the race zone. You're often frustrated because you don't achieve the objective you've set yourselves. A slight glitch costs very dearly in the ranking. On the other hand, it can't be denied that the various crew changes in five of the six events doesn't help either, even though there are positive aspects to the latter, particularly in terms of the weight embarked.
"We have nothing to be ashamed about in our fourth place as we only just missed out on third and we're ahead of other teams who have been racing on the circuit for several years. In addition, if you look at the results from each of the events on the circuit, you cannot fail to notice one thing: Groupama 40 gets the best results on every final day of racing. Conclusion: we need more time together on the boat.
"The more we sail, the better we'll be!
"I'd like to thank all my crew for this first season together. Thanks also go to Yoann Bibbeau, who is always there to encourage us and prepare our Groupama 40!
Already, the crew are casting their minds to next year, as we can see from the conclusion drawn by Tanguy Cariou, in charge of the Groupama 40 sailing team and tactician aboard: "We really have to train if we want to be better next year. Our training session will have to be specific and geared towards the particular characteristics of the various race zones selected. However, we have the potential so we will be a force to be reckoned with!"...
Cammas-Groupama
iShares Cup
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