Blu Moon Wins SNIM in Mistral Conditions
From Christophe Barrue of the French Melges 24 Class - Before the start of this year's SNIM regatta we knew the Mistral should blow. 33 boats came to have fun provided the mistral would cooperate by leaving a window to sail during the four days of racing planned over the Easter Weekend. The best crews came to fight in the historic bay of Marseille. They dreamed about big waves and long surf.
First day, the mistral succeeded in keeping all teams at the harbour: 35 knots all the day and no way to try to sail even for practising! Waves were everywhere hight about 3 meters. Boats who were parked in the CMV couldn't cross the bay to park join the fleet in the historic harbour.
The next day, the mistral abated a little and offered the possibility for the organisation to set to sea and let the crews play. Fortunately, Race Officer Corinne Aubert and her team decided to bring the start forward to 09h30 to be sure to do the most they can to achieve racing. Four races for the schedule were been sailed.
The wind was very strong and conditions were on the edge of sailable with the race area split between two winds: on the left side of the course the winds were good, but the strong mistral often appeared on the right! In these tricky conditions, the local team on Marsail 1 was the best, they dominated the race till the end. Team Audi Giacomel and Altea were fighting for the rest.
At the second race the wind system was different. The wind was coming most regular on the left side. Blue Moon and Marchingenio suceeded in dominating the firsts places. They finished first and second respectively while Excellent finished third. They confirmed their good speed in this windy conditions.
With two races completed there was now tension in the air for races three and four. The mistral became more shifty in direction and speed. Sometime coming from the right side then from the left. We saw two Italians in the first places: UKA UKA in race three and Pilot Italia in race four, but never far from the lead was Blue Moon which assured good result finishing second and five. Excellent was also close from these teams.
At the end of the first day the overall ranking was:-
1 Blu Moon (Franco Rossini)
2 UKA UKA (Bressani Lorenzo)
3 Excellent (Pollard John)
Ultimately this result become the overall standing as during the two lasts days the mistral dominated the area and no Melges nor other boats could sail. Even the boats tryin to return the CMV harbour so that they could crane out their boats on the last day struggled to sail from the old harbour and it just wasn't possible to race in those conditions.
We can congratulate the organisation for not wasting time on the second day and thank Corinne Aubert and her team for an excellent job done as the Melges 24 class was the only one to sail four races and compete in relatively good conditions during this windy holiday.
We hope to see most of you at the next event in Argentario.
Regards
Christophe Barrue
Euro-Voiles FRA 639