Monday, 19 July 2004

Event

First IMOCA Championship Race of the 2004 season. The Calais 1000 mile race was a fully crewed sprint exclusively for IMOCA Open 60's and on 9th May 2004 saw the fleet of six boats start just off Blanc Nez on the Calais shore race out to the famous Fastnet Rock before racing back to the finish in Calais 4 days later.

Crew

Skipper - Mike Golding, crew - Graham Tourell, Brian Thompson, Bruno Dubois & Merfyn Owen.

Summary

The Mike Golding Yacht Racing crew on ECOVER has finished in second place just 4 hours after the leading boat and leaving the rest of the following fleet with over 100 miles to go. ECOVER crossed the finish line of the Calais 1,000 miles race at 1330 local French time after 4 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes and 3 seconds at sea. This race has been a fantastic opportunity for many reasons and the team are now looking forward to the single-handed Transat and Vendee Globe races. Having raced along side one of the new, potentially threatening, Lombard-designed IMOCA Open 60s in upwind, downwind and reaching conditions, the team has proven that ECOVER is evenly matched. When side by side, the two boats were absolutely even and the team is confident for the rest of the season.

Golding described the simple twist of fate at the Fastnet Rock: “We had a very close fight with Bonduelle until the Rock, apart from the last 15 miles or so when we got a bit ahead. We lead round the Rock and then fell into a small (windless) hole, which lots of the boats did, including Bonduelle, but they escaped and were able to creep away. Several of the other boats got stuck far worse than we did and basically the race result was controlled from that moment on. It was very unlikely that we’d be able to recuperate that time, as it was very gentle, with probably no more than 10 knots of breeze the whole way back.”

On asked about the highlights of the race, Golding said, “It was very exciting round the Fastnet Rock, obviously we enjoyed that particularly because we were leading, but also because it is pretty atmospheric by the Rock. The other part of it was being side-by-side racing with Bonduelle at the beginning, hour after hour and day after day and being able to use that a basic tool to learn more about our boat for the future. We really are pleased.”

It is worth remembering that ECOVER is now set up for the single-handed, non-stop, round-the-world race the Vendee Globe, in which Golding is one of the favourites. It has a generator on board, fuel tanks and everything that is required for a round-the-world race. Generally this means the boat is heavier, so consequently ECOVER has been in good shape in a relatively light airs race. The light air conditions could even have been in Lombard’s favour, as the design of the boat is that much narrower than the Owen Clarke-designed Open 60. Who knows what ECOVER capable of in the forthcoming races. On talking about the ECOVER’s performance Golding confirmed, “The boat has behaved superbly and we are all really pleased with our speed. The work we have carried out over the winter has really made the boat much easier to sail which will become even more vital now as from here on in, as I won't have the benefit of a professional sailing team onboard as the other two majors this year are solo events.”