Pornichet Select 650

[Adrian]

The Pornichet Select 650 starts tomorrow, Saturday
See   www.cnbpp.fr
There are 2 US entries - Craig Horsfield Zero #655 & Chris Tuttmark Nacira #724

[Phoenix]

Chris pulled out a really impressive finish, despite being several hours back around the halfway point.

He ended up 11th overall and about 1h 15m ahead of the 1st official series boat. Not bad for his first mini race.

No news of Craig's finish yet... hopefully they will keep posting results into the night over there. He was about mid fleet at the halfway point.

[Phoenix]

oops. now Chris isn't listed anymore in results...?

[Adrian]

Craig reports the following for day #1:
The first night of the Pornichet Select was passed under clear, starry skies with a westerly breeze of 10-12 knots. The fleet reached Les Birvideaux then settled in for a long spinnaker run towards Port Bourgenay to the south. They are now sailing toward the Island of Groix in 15-20 knot winds and, if the winds hold, the first boats should be back in Pornichet on Monday afternoon.

The Pornichet Select is living up to its reputation as a difficult and challenging race. Nine boats have abandoned so far due to collisions, or broken rudders or autopilots. Rounding the buoy at Port Bourgenay, Craig was 22nd of 39 Series boats, about 1 1/2 hours behind the leader.

Leo's site has a post saying Chris & Craig withdrew before the finish.
I wonder if they missed a mark somewhere coz earlier I heard they both had finished.

[Adrian]

The results seem tom show Craig 16th out of 24 Series boats that finished.
Chris is not on the list - it looks as though we may have to wait for their blogs to get their stories.

[Adrian]

Chris has the story of his boat problems on his blog:

"Well things with the Select did not quite go to plan. A few days prior my fuel cell stopped working and I was unable to get it repaired prior to the start. While it was working, it may have been masking another issue, that the batteries were not holding a charge.

So, after starting the race with what I thought were full batteries after 12 hours I was into major power conserve mode. This meant no GPS, no instruments, no VHF and most painfully no auto pilot. During the first night it was tough but not too severe since there were a lot of boats nearby to gauge off of both speed and direction.

The boat seemed to be going well although sail changes in the variable conditions were a challenge without the pilot. ... "


Visit his blog for the rest of the story .. 

[Adrian]

Chris' blog is at:
http://usa724-mini.blogspot.com/

[Adrian]

Craig finished the race - 16th in Series class.

Here is his news:

"Skyweb Express finishes the Pornichet Select 16th in class
Pornichet Select startThe Pornichet Select lived up to its reputation of being a very hard race. I had been told beforehand that the Select was hard, that I should be careful, and that I should remember that the major goal was the Transit. But there is nothing like experiencing it to really understand.
The Select started in nice weather and the fleet was very fast, pushing all the time. I was just managing to stay with the lead bunch while trying to be conservative and to not break anything. It started to get a lot harder in the south end when the west wind picked up for the 100 NM upwind leg to Isle of Cru. All night, I flew of waves and every time that I came crashing down the boat and mast would shake very badly. I'm not sure how I got home in one piece. As you can tell by the number of boats that didn't finish, many didn't.  ... "

You can read the rest of his story detailing his problems, knock down & injury on his website at:
http://www.craighorsfieldracing.com

He has a report on his website