by Vincent Borde
Well you've got to start somewhere! That's what Franck Cammas and Sophie de Turckheim said to themselves this morning as they left the beach in the port of Hyères, southern France. On their return this evening, the two racers were pretty cheery after battling it out in two fine races, which saw them take fifth place in the provisional overall standing.
Ladies first and hence Sophie, who competed in her first catamaran race today, despite injuring her back during a capsize a few days ago on the waters of Hyères: "It's been a rather nice day. We just need to pull off some better starts so we're in a position to make the most of the wind shifts. I'm happy though".
Alongside her, Franck is finishing rinsing the catamaran's sails and trampoline. The Groupama skipper has a sunny look about him when we announce his provisional fifth place in his first official Nacra 17 race: "It's a good day. What I take from it most of all is that we constantly gained places and manoeuvred well. It's really satisfying. However, we still need to make progress with our tactical choices, particularly during the starts, where we're often hindered by our rivals".
Eighth in the first race after rounding the first mark in eighteenth position, fourth in the second, Groupama put up one of the most consistent performances of the Nacra 17 fleet, together with the Dutch, English and Swedish sailors, who are in the provisional top three spots.
The second French team, Besson-Riou, are lying in ninth position, six points shy of Cammas-Turckheim, whilst the unfortunate Iker Martinez didn't finish the first race and whilst leading the third race, saw the race cancelled following an overly brutal wind rotation.
Suffice to say that this fine cast will be keen to either redeem themselves or continue in the same vein tomorrow in the similar medium to light conditions there were today.
Provisional overall standing:
1/ Groebeveld-Begeman (NED) with 5 points
2/ Macgregor - Phipps (GB) with 6 points
3/ Shuwalow-Klinga (SWE) with 7 points
4/ Zajac-Frank (AUT) with 9 points
5/ Cammas-Turckheim with 12 points
....29 ranked.
Cammas - Groupama
ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères
