Philippe with Ile d’Yeu on the horizon
the Banc de la Coubre, not good, we
Way,’ which was a big low profile boat
turned away instinctively!
designed for use on lakes.
Next up was a freak trough. Phillipe's
Over the three days of racing we
eyes popped out of his head and then
got better at starting and we figured
glanced at mine, indicating what was
out how to read the currents, but
ahead, I too stared at the trough and
unfortunatley it was all too late, the
we both held our breath Oh la, la!
main contenders had professional
Running down wind there was nothing
crews who knew the waters and we
we could do to reduce the force of the
were clearly amateurs.
wind on the sails that was pushing us
down this precipice and threatening
The first race did not count because a
to pitch-pole us, but you know
buoy was missing, who cares? It was
what? Nothing really happened; we
my birthday!
In the final race everybody drifted about
accelerated down to the bottom and
aimlessly in the current, we were doing
came back up the other side, great,
In the second race we sailed around
very well until we made a tactical error,
thrills without spills, that's what I like!
the Phare du Cordouan, a 50 mile
trying to cross to the other side of the
trip akin to sailing around the IOW. A
river, we went backwards rather quickly
Phillipe s phone rang, he had the main
couple of boats retired in the light winds
and were able to watch the leaders
sheet in one hand and a cigarette in
early on but then it rained and got very
finish as we ended up back at the
the other, it was Laouen, the boss
windy and rough so at the mouth of the
start, 2 hours into the race. However,
of VirusBoats, the builder of the V8,
estuary we had to take a reef before
we made a stunning recovery by doing
checking to see if we'd arrived safely,
we gybed. Laouen, who'd neglected
what the leaders had done and felt very
I felt a gust and checked the GPS. 17
to bring his foul weather gear, got very
pleased with ourselves for not retiring!
knots! We were taking it all in our stride,
cold and wet and realised that he was
Laouen was envious.
incapable of making judgements so
Find out what exciting things
left the decision to us. The smallest
The friendly, welcome party at Port
trimaran, bravely flying its pink kite,
happened on the voyage back
Medoc caught our warps for us and
nearly pitch poled at the bottom of a
to Brittany at
promised to take us to the local sail
big wave, its mast broke instead and
maker in the morning.
that saved the boat. When we finished
http://www.ahoy-boats.info/archives/
we discovered that the fuel lead to our
sailing/cat_catamarans.html
Apart from a few Corsairs the other
engine had been severed and we had
competitors seemed to be in large one
to sail into the marina in the very light You can also see videos of
off boats. We were the second smallest
evening winds! We were right at the
the adventure!
in the regatta so it is not surprising that
entrance when the organisers zipped
we were mostly at the rear of the fleet
out in a RIB to rescue us, we had been
More details on the Virus V8 catamaran
in each of the three races over the long
up for it though. During the post race
from
www.ahoy-boats.com
weekend, but really this was largely due
party it rained cats and dogs and the
to our ineptitude as racing sailors. The
electricity in the marquee failed, my
The manufacturer is Virus boats at
overall winner was a trimaran called ‘My
clothes were outside, drying!
www.virusboats.com
20 MULTIHULL REVIEW : TIHULL REVIEW : MARCH 2009OCTOBER 2009
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