Organised for 25 years by CVBE with full support of Erquy City, Brittany Region and Côtes d’Armor Département, 2018 Costarmoricaine Raid has been granted World status after first F18 Raid Worlds to be sailed in Stockholm Archipelago.
Actually, first leg of F18 Raid Worlds has been sailed faster than feared considering the very light breeze hardly wrinkling water surface on Wednesday morning. After the fleet gently progressed at the beginning, then the windforce raised a little bit and the fleet was able to reach Bréhat Island in a pretty short time, sailing the whole regatta downwind.
The 19 teams entering the event launched their kites very soon, some facing difficulties for not drifting too much, and a big gap was created after rounding “La Roselière” mark. At this game, pair Benoît Champanhac – Hugo Dhallenne (YC Saint-Lunaire) ended the 28 NM race course in 3 hours 01 minute et 1 seconds, closely followed by Nicolas Touchot and Pierre-Yves Durand, also members of YC Saint-Lunaire.
To note the fairly good performance of young brother and sister pair Cédric et Delphine Fleury (CMV Saint-Brieuc), finishing less than 4 minutes after their contenders.
At the end of the day, a very technical leg where the capacity to hold the kite close to the wind has been decisive. Whatever the case, Raid Worlds titlle remains more than open…
Dominique Malécot
Complete results at https://cvberquy.org/costa/resultats/2018/
Pictures of day 1 of the F18 Raid Worldfs 2018 by Jasper van Staveren can be found here.