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Coupe de Armistice in Cannes……
36 boats took part over the weekend in the traditional “Coupe de Armistice” in Cannes, opening the winter season for many excited travelling sailors for another year. On the Friday and Saturday, the weather was filled with glorious sunshine all day but not so much wind. Then on Sunday the skies turned grey and down came the rain and in came the wind which made it a very interesting series of 4 races, with 3 to count.
In fact there were 4 different race winners which proved how difficult the conditions were at times for this “Star” studded fleet. In race one, which was sailed on Friday afternoon in the west bay, PRO Philippe Faure successfully got the fleet away under a black flag and it was RUS 98 who managed to play the shift’s correctly as neither the left or the right side was favoured. Indeed Igor Goikhberg helmed “Zenith” beautifully to keep his lead and won the race with the help of his crew Dmitry Berezkin and Roman Sadchcov.
In race two that took place in the bay of Golf Juan on Saturday, just around the corner from Yacht Club de Cannes, it was FRA 380 “Pas de Cartier” helmed by Vicent Jeantet , crewed by his wife Brigitte and Alain Bertrand, who sailed brilliantly to gain a good lead at the first mark and keep his advantage to take the winners gun. It was an even more remarkable win for Vicent, who just 3 weeks ago was having a “Stent” put into his Coronary Artery ! So this has obviously given Vicent renewed energy and enthusiasm 🙂
Although it was impossible to get more than one race completed on Saturday, the event was saved by some of the most exciting sailing ever in Cannes with a 20 to 22 kt breeze on Sunday. With the first race won by ITA 56 “Cloud” helmed by Giuseppe Duca, crewed by Jean Sebastien Ponce and Vittorio Zaoli and the second race won by GBR 789 “Bear”, Martin Payne, Olivier Bakker and Gillian Hamilton, the overall positions were to be decided by the consistent sailing of the top two boats… GBR 785 “Alfie” helmed by Lawrie Smith and RUS 27 “Anapurna” helmed by Anatoly Loginov.
Both Duca and Payne had shown great speed particularly on the downwind legs surfing the huge waves to comfortably win their races, but it was RUS 27 who just managed to hold out and beat GBR 785 overall by one point after discard. This left Lawrie and his team of Simon Stewart and Joost Houweling as very creditable runner’s up. RUS 98 finished well to take the final podium position.
The photo shows Lawrie and his team centre, with Anatoly’s team left and Igor’s crew on the right. Unfortunately both Anatoly and Igor were not present. So in closing it was another successful regatta held by the Yacht Club de Cannes and we all now look forward to the “Coupe d’ Hiver”. We sailors thank Karine Green and Jean Pierre Gailes with all their helpers for running such a nice regatta and I am sure we will have another good turn out in December………..5th, 6th & & 7th.
Higher, Faster, Longer………… Stavros. GBR 789 “Bear”.