Trophée Laura Vergne

With 14 Figaro’s competing at this years Laura Vergne Trophy it was a great experience to be racing against some of the top talents in the fleet. Most days consisted of two inshore races and then a coastal race around the bay of La Trinite-Sur-Mer. Two of the days were taken up by a planned 48 hour race up and down the west coast of France. After close inshore and coastal racing over the first two days the skippers safety briefing started. With the race committee concerned about a low forming just off the coast with predicted wind speeds in the 45-50 knot range the course for the offshore race was shortened. The 14 boats set off in a close pack upwind out of the bay heading for Lorient, with code 0’s hoisted down the channel out of the bay we happily held onto 3rd place with the fleet chasing closely behind us. After leaving the channel the fleet was quick to peel to the masthead kite from the code 0. With only boat lengths separating the front runners the team was on point in a building breeze. With boat speeds now around 18 knots and wind increasing the fleet was charging at speed towards the rounding mark around four hours away in speed waves surfing and lifting off the foils. After a rest it was time to get the kite down and round the mark and start heading towards home. After the mark the fleet split with some trying to gain height to deploy their code 0 and others on a more direct course for the downwind side of the island, we had opted to gain height and deployed the code due to the wind shifting right. Now in wind of around 25-30 knots the code was attached on the foredeck and hoisted in big breeze and waves. After deploying the code the boat shot off on a reach down to the island at around 15 knots bouncing over the waves now gaining and rolling over the top of the boats that went for the more direct option. On the back side of the island in the shadow the breeze died to around 5 knots and progress was slow. Opting to get the code away ready for the next leg pulled us closer to the front runners again. The race finished with a close battle with Lush Racing and the option between code and J4. Unfortunately the code paid off in the dark and Lush racing was able to roll over the top of us as we both hoisted kites for the run to the finish. We finished in 4th overall in the offshore and the event with lots learnt.