In an intense opening day of racing, sailed predominately in full hiking conditions, Aspire (Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise) and Girls on Film ll (Louise Morton, Sam Haines and Andrew Mills), both emerged as race winners.

However, The Jean Genie (Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey and Ruairidh Scott) had an impressively consistent day, with two second places, and currently tops the leader board, two points ahead of Aspire. Artemis (Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Saether) lies third overall, having notched up one third and one fourth place.

After a general recall for the first start, the fleet got away cleanly at the second attempt. Aspire started in clean air towards the pin end of the line, well away from a tightly packed bunch of slower moving boats close to the committee boat. She then worked the left-hand side of the course, along with Enez C'Las I (Nicolas Paris, Jean-Jacques Loheac and Mathias Biger) and Ku-Ring-Gai III (John Bacon, Joost Houweling and Edward Wright).

Nevertheless, Ali Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi), The Jean Genie and Shaolin (Patrick Zaugg, Andreas Kindlimann and Hans von Werdt) led a tight group of six boats into the first windward mark on starboard tack. Fortunately for Aspire, they had overstood, giving space for the Polish team to tack underneath and round the mark with a slender lead of only half a dozen metres.

“It was, I think a good choice to go to the left after the start – we had good speed and, even more important, there were not many other boats around,” says Gacek. “Then at the top mark Mateusz and Killian made a good call.”

They then slipped a couple of places on the first “really tricky” downwind leg, before rounding the second windward mark second behind The Jean Genie. Gacek says they, “played the final run quite well – we are normally quite strong downwind – and finished a boat length ahead of Morty. It was a great race and my first ever win in the 5.5 Metre as helmsman – I'm quite happy and will go out for a beer tonight.”

Girls on Film ll romped away to a big lead at the end of the second race, having made a good start on the committee boat side of mid-line. “It was a great day for Girls on Film,” says Mills, “with a good race course out there: quite shifty, but oscillating and not persistent shifts.

“We made our way up the right hand side of the course, then caught a really nice right shift to come back and consolidate on the fleet and then rounded the first windward mark second, just behind The Jean Genie.”

They then negotiated what Mills describes as a difficult downwind leg with, “quite a few boats still in the mix” before rounding the leeward gate in an advantaged position just inside The Jean Genie. “Then we managed to nail the shifts up the second beat,” he adds, “and luckily rounded the second windward mark with a very nice lead, so could kind of relax down the final run. It was a good second race for us.”

Criollo (Andreas Christiansen, Felix Christiansen and Julius Plass) heads the nine strong Evolution fleet of older boats, just two points ahead of ChlikaChlikaChlika (Antonin Radue, Pascal Radue and Patrick Huguenin), while Manuela V (Guido Tommasi, Matteo Barison and Andrea Racchelli) leads the classic division.

Racing continues all week at the Yacht Club de l’Odet in south Brittany where 10 races are scheduled.