Just over half a day after Drekan Energy, who crossed the finish line at 3h48'26 on Thursday 18 July, Teasing Machine finished the DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE at 16h44'18, after 2 days, 59 minutes and 18 seconds at sea. The large 54-foot Nivelt-Muratet design, which underwent a refit last winter, crossed the line near the entrance of La Trinité-sur-Mer in summery conditions, a far cry from those at the start in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin last Monday.
"This race has been very varied, and that's precisely what has made it interesting, as there has been a lot of work for our navigator, Jean-Luc Nélias, but also on deck, with every manoeuvre possible for the crew, commented the owner and skipper of Teasing Machine, Eric de Turckheim. We set off with wind, we ploughed across to Shambles, then we had a long upwind leg to Wolf Rock, again in quite a lot of wind, slamming against the short seas. The last part of the race, on the other hand, was dead calm, with speeds dropping to 3-5 knots, particularly along Belle-Ile. In fact, we opted to sail between the island at the mainland, in the hope that if the wind really dropped, we'd be able to pick up some thermals near the coast. »
Although this final stretch of the 520-mile course was long, it didn't spoil the pleasure for the skipper who will be aiming to win the Middle Sea Race in October, having already won it in 2022. "It took us a little while to finish, but at the end of the day, we're happy to be first monohull. Even if we didn't have any real competition with boats our size, it's always rewarding to win in real time, which has been the case in several races this year, it isn't that often.»
Will the winners of the Round Ireland Race at the end of June in corrected time and in real time repeat the achievement in the DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE? The crew, which includes Jean-Luc Nélias, Laurent Pagès, Christian Ponthieu, Bertrand Castelnerac, Jean-Emmanuel Mazars, Paco Lepoutre, Quentin Bouchacourt, Jérôme Teillet and Alexandre de Girval, in addition to the skipper, certainly hopes to. They will have to wait for the finishing times of the other monohulls entered in the crewed IRC class to find out. The same three boats are still battling it out for the two remaining podium places, in order of rankings on Thursday: Fastwave 6 (Eric Fries), Stamina Sailing Team (Charlie Ageneau) and Moana (Frans Van Cappelle).
The trio is due to arrive in La Trinité-sur-Mer on Friday, ahead of Bruno Jacob's ORC 50 GDD, the second Multi 2000 (behind Drekan Energy), who should finish on Thursday night, while the battle for third place in real time in the multihull class is currently raging between Wellness Training/MG5 (Marc Guillemot) and ACapella-Proludic-La chaîne de l'espoir (Charlie Capelle). In the IRC double-handed class, Red Ruby (Jonahan McKee/Will Harris) is still in the lead, as is SL Energies Groupe (Laurent Charmy) in the Sun Fast 30 One Design group. Finally, in the Class40 category, on the 630-mile long course, the two inseparable boats, Swift (Jack Trigger) and Groupe Snef (Xavier Macaire), have finally gone their separate ways as they neared Brittany. The latter has moved closer to the coast to find some wind, which seems to be working for him at the moment.
One thing is certain, the bulk of the fleet is continuing to sail in light conditions, making the outcome of the DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE particularly uncertain in all categories. "There is a high pressure ridge over the Bay of Biscay, with winds between 3 to 8 knots. Everyone is trying to get out of it, but the problem is that it is moving east with them, confirms Christian Dumard, the race's weather consultant. The wind will eventually be back, from the south-west, but not until Saturday, which should nevertheless enable almost everyone to finish on time. " This means Sunday before 6am, when the line closes.