South America: national events: photos and summaries

French One Design Fleet Championships, July 2010

From Sunday 18th to Friday 23rd July, the first ever French Junior Championships on One Design O'pen BIC boats were held at Moisson Lavacourt, west of Paris. The idea of this new type of regatta is to reduce the necessary energy of individuals transporting their own boats to each regatta, which is costly both financially and ecologically. With this new format, competitors simply turn up by car pooling , bus, train or whatever, without having to worry about towing boats on a trailer!
For this year's event, BIC Sport supplied 74 O'pen BIC boats, for 74 competitors to come and participate with only their wetsuit and a lifejacket !

It's also a way of opening up competitions to the biggest number possible of entrants, again by limiting the required expenditure on equipment and transport. a very good initiative, and a very green one too, confirming the O'pen BIC formula as a symbol of the new generation of eco-friendly competitions (the O'pen BIC won the Bateau Bleu award in 2007 for its eco-conception).
« It's a new kind of vision of sailing in France" declared Jean-Pierre Champion, President of the French Sailing Federation.
This innovative event has brought together 74 competitors, 54 boys and 20 girls, from 14 separate regions of France.
Aboard the special limited edition Banque Populaire O'pen BICs (blue decks), the official sponsor, the racers are all on an equal footing, with the boat numbers coming from a blind draw, with just tactics and technique to separate them afterwards.

Thursday 22nd July

The wind was blowing a little stronger today accross the lake at Moisson Lavacourt. The wind and broken sunshine allowed our young racers to compete in almost perfect sailing conditions. And we witnessed to superb duels down the slalom section just before the finish. Some of the competitors started showing signs of tiredness, which manifested itself in a more strung out fleet. Happily for them, the racing course is close enough to base for them to be able to get a good re-fuelling in at lunchtime before attacking the races once again in the afternoon.

With just one more full day of racing to come in this excellent championship contest, three racers have managed to consolidate the lead they had established on Wednesday. Arthur Fortune, from the YC Cannes club, Jules Ducelier from VGA Saint-Maur, and Brice Yrieix from Trinité-sur-mer. And for the first time this week the threesome will be able to measure themselves in a head-to-head, racing together in the "Gold section". Those three young skippers will be disputing the gold medal, and we will soon know who's going to be the first ever French O'pen BIC Formula Fleet Champion. A great day's racing in prospect with good wind conditions on the forecast.

Tuesday 20th July
After a windless day, the wind finally raised its head enough at Moisson for 4 races to be run, on a "natural" course that brought the kids a lot of pleasure with its very different legs to be negotiated. The gusty, changeable wind (between 5 and 12 knots) definitely favoured those with tactical skill. A great show with the fair play spirit very firmly present out on the course.

Wednesday 21st July
The French Junior Formula Fleet Championships is well and truly underway. The wind strengthened steadily through the day, building from 5 to 11 knots, allowing the race committee to run four races, each on a different course configuration. These "natural" course layouts included a slalom section, giving the young racers a chance to fully appreciate the pleasure of sailing their O'pen BIC boats in pretty much optimum wind conditions. As on Tuesday, the race committee split the field into two groups : Yellows and Greens.

The competitors are all very enthousiastic about the formula fleet idea, but also very appreciative of the boat in question, one which is both highly responsive and capable of great acceleration as soon as there's any wind. Marine from the CN Pornic club appreciated « the practicality of being able to travel to a race meet without having to take my own boat. It puts everyone on the same level. » While Louis from the SRV Annecy club found that « The boats are all identical, which gives everyone an equal chance ». And Jules from the VGA Saint-Maur club told us : « a formula fleet is a great idea, not everyone has access to a boat like the Open Bic, it makes things simpler for everyone».

Apart from being an innovator as far as course layout is concerned, this competition is also providing plenty of competitiveness out on the water and the best racers in the fleet have been able to make their mark. We're witnessing a fascinating duel between Arthur Fortune, from the YC Cannes club, and Jules Dusselier, from VGA Saint-Maur, both dominating their respective race fields. In the yellow group Arthur has won six of the eight races run so far, while in the green section, Jules has won four times. And currently occupying the third podium spot is Brice Yrieix from Trinité-sur-mer who enjoyed a good second day's racing, climbing to within three points of second place.