The start of the fifth edition of the DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE was given on Monday 15 July at 16:30 in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in a steady Southeasterly breeze. On the agenda for the 70 boats taking part, two 630 and 490 mile courses to La Trinité-sur-Mer, with varied conditions and great battles in store in the different classes.
After a weekend with virtually no wind, it picked up again on Monday in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin harbour, with a brisk 15 knot southeasterly breeze, kicking off the fifth edition of the DRHEAM CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE in ideal conditions. The Multi 2000s, Class40s and the only large monohull entered (Akela) crossed the start line at 16:30 in front of Le Becquet, heading for an offset buoy and the Urville mark, which was first passed by the MOD70 Drekan Energy (Eric Defert) ahead of the ORC 50 GDD (Bruno Jacob) and the 50-foot trimaran Rayon Vert (Oren Nataf). Fifteen minutes later, the IRC double-handed and crewed boats, the Sun Fast 30 One Design class and classic yacht Merry Dancer, a 1938 Fife design, set off.
The agenda for the first few hours of racing? “A fast crossing of the English Channel with 20-25 knots of wind, which will soon shift the west, replies Christian Dumard, the race’s weather consultant. After that, it will be upwind sailing in easing winds along the English coast and a very uncertain finish in light airs. “In these conditions, the fastest boat, Eric Defert’s MOD70 Drekan Energy, is expected to reach La Trinité-sur-Mer after around a day and a half at sea, with the bulk of the fleet between Thursday 18 July and Saturday 20 July.
As he left the pontoon at Port Chantereyne, Xavier Macaire, defending Class40 winner on Groupe Snef, was expecting a fairly tactical race over the 630-mile Class40s’s course: “We’re going to have to make the most of Channel crossing on a beam reach, which is going to be the most fun part of the race, because after that, we’re going to have a lot of upwind sailing, so not as many fast, and high intensity runs, but a lot of transitions and changes in the weather systems. We’re going to have to be focused, reactive and opportunistic.”
On paper, Groupe Snef, one of the three scows in the race with Viranga (Emmanuel Hamez) and Swift (Jack Trigger), appears to be the favourite in Class40, with a wide open game for the “pointy” boats. “We are going to see a good battle between the pointy boats, with very unusual weather conditions, confirms Alexandre Legallais (TrimControl).Our boat is one of the oldest of the older boats, we will be happy with a top 3 finish.”
A France/England match
Over the 490-mile course, the battle promises to be particularly intense in the two most represented categories, IRC two-handed (28 boats) and IRC crewed (16). The IRC two-handed class, featuring a large British contingent, includes fifteen duos taking part in the UK Double Handed Offshore Series, launched in the UK to promote double-handed racing. The DRHEAM CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE is the second of the two legs of the IRC Two-handed Offshore European Championship, after Cowes-Dinard. “We know that the French are very good at short-handed racing, but we’re working really hard in Great Britain to progress and catch up. I think we’ve reached an excellent level and this race will be a good test for us. My aim is for one of our fifteen boats to beat the French!” explains Kate Cope, co-director of the circuit and entered on the Sun Fast 3200 Purple Mist with Conor Corson.
Among the best British chances are Red Ruby (Jonathan McKee/Will Harris) – who crossed the line too early and received a one-hour penalty – Zephyr (Simon Toms/Josh Dawson), winners of the Cowes-Dinard race in this category, Diablo (Nicholas Martin/Calanach Finlayson), Cora (Tim Goodhew/Kevin Matthews) and Bellino, sailed by Rob Craigie and Deborah Fish, the first woman to be elected Commodore of the prestigious Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). Proof of the British enthusiasm for the DRHEAM CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE is the fact that the RORC has included it in its calendar and, above all, in the rankings of its annual championship, which is highly coveted across the Channel.
This France/England match is also taken very seriously by the French sailors, who are determined to stay ahead of the game. “There’s good competition with our British friends, with new boats on the scene, so it’s going to be interesting”, explains François Moriceau, skipper of Mary, a regular who has raced in the four previous editions and who confesses to aiming for “a top 5 finish”. Cherbourg-based Maxime Mesnil, at the helm of AxeSail by Issartel/Sarbacane, alongside Hugo Feydit, is also aiming for the top. “There are a lot of doubles this year, with a great competition between the French and British. As we’ve done a lot of RORC races in England, we know them well and we know that the level is high, but we think we can do well.”
In the IRC crewed category, while Eric de Turckheim’s 54-foot Teasing Machine, recent winner of the Round Ireland Race, is the favourite, a number of boats are aiming for the podium in both real and compensated time, including the JPK 11.80 Fastwave 6 (Eric Fries), the Dutch J122 Moana (Frans Van Cappelle), sailed by a 100% mixed crew, the British Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep (Jacob Carter) and the Joubert design Stamina Sailing Team (Charlie Ageneau).
In the Multi 2000 class, which brings together very different multihulls, from the MOD70 Drekan Energy (Eric Defert), the largest boat in the fleet, to the ‘small yellow’ tris ACapella Proludic-La chaîne de l’espoir (Charlie Capelle) and Perros-Guirec (Thierry Roger), and including the 50-foot Rayon Vert (Oren Nataf, defending champion), GDD (Bruno Jacob), Wellness Training/MG5 (Marc Guillemot), the challenge will be to win on corrected time, which is Charlie Capelle’s openly stated aim, as the three-time winner of the DRHEAM CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE in this class (2016, 2018 and 2020). “We’re the smallest boat with Perros-Guirec, so if the wind is really light, we’ve got a chance of winning because ACapella is very fast in light airs, and above all, we know how to trim her”, smiles the skipper who has six Route du Rhums to his name.
Finally, in the new Sun Fast 30 One Design class, a VPLP Design one-design launched this year, the eight crews in the running all seem eager to battle it out in the first event that ranks them separately. “You can tell that everyone is looking forward to competing against each other and comparing speeds. Particularly the British, who have the enthusiasm of youth, but perhaps less experience than us, so it’s fun to race against them”, comments Jean Passini (Numerobis). “We’ve had the boat for two months now, and we’re here to continue learning on a super interesting race in terms of the course and weather, but above all hope to place, adds Noa Geoffroy, at the head of the Collectif Espoir Terre Bleue crew from Cherbourg. We think we’ve found the tools to get the boat moving, so why not get into the top three? ” Answers at the end of the week!
IN THE SAILOR’S OWN WORDS:
Oren Nataf (Rayon Vert, Multi 2000): “I’m coming to the DRHEAM-CUP to enjoy myself, because I’m an amateur, and if we win like we did two years ago, all the better! The DRHEAM-CUP is a great race, one of the few with a bit of distance to cover. The other 50-foot multihulls will be our main rivals, we have very similar performances, so we’re going to try not to worry too much about the others and concentrate on our sailing, we will see the result at the end.”
Frans Van Cappelle (Moana, IRC crewed): “Moana is a 2018 J122, which I own. We sail with eight-person mixed crew, and we’ve done a lot of 600-mile races: We raced in the DRHEAM-CUP two years ago, the Fastnet twice, the RORC transatlantic race and the Middle Sea Race, so we’ve got a lot of experience under our belts, and our aim is to finish on the podium.”
Guillaume Ferey (IziPizi, IRC crewed): “Our first aim is to finish, and if possible on time, because we know there’s going to be some calm weather, so it’s going to be a game of patience. We have a couple of friends we’d like to finish ahead of, like Vasco, the sistership to our boat, and the Pogo 10.50 Polperro. We haven’t raced much against the English, so we’ll be watching what they do, and hoping to be ahead of them!”
Thierry Roger (Perros-Guirec, Multi 2000): “I’m sailing on a boat named Perros-Guirec because the port of Perros-Guirec is fitting a 12 metre wide door and they’re trying to get the word out. It’s one of the last designs by Nick Newick, the great architect of the 1980s American school, built in Trébeurden out of fibreglass and epoxy. We’re trying to revitalise the ‘golden oldies’ class, because it’s more in the spirit of the times to reuse old boats rather than build new ones. In this DRHEAM-CUP, we’re up against a boat quite similar to our own, Charlie Capelle’s, who is very experienced and knows his boat inside out, so if we can keep up with him, we’ll be happy.”
Tim Goodhew (Cora, IRC two-handed): “It’s the first time we’ve sailed in the DRHEAM-CUP, so there should be a good fight between the 10-metre boats, particularly between the French and English. There’s a good level on both sides, everyone is pushing harder. If we can be in the top 5, we will be happy, and a podium would be even better!”
Pierre Bouhanna (Jambo, IRC crewed): “We’re sailing a 2016 J97 based in Deauville, and the DRHEAM-CUP is going to be the longest race she’s ever sailed, so we want to finish and stay in contact with the frontrunners for as long as possible, knowing that all the boats there are extremely competitive. It’s exciting to take part in races like this, which bring together different boats, amateurs and professionals, especially as the race is so well organised.”
Alexandre Noël (Fondation Arthritis, IRC two-handed): “The DRHEAM-CUP is a first for me and my co-skipper Damien Lemoigne, the plan is to take part in the Cap Martinique in 2026. We are really new on the circuit, we have only raced in La Trinité-Cherbourg. It’s a nice course, the longest we’ve sailed double-handed, and we’re going to have all sorts of conditions, with wind, some play along the English coast, and a high pressure system that’s showing its face and is likely to give us a hard time at the end of the race.”
HOW CAN YOU FOLLOW THE RACE?
The race can be followed on the tracking map, updated every fifteen minutes, on the website, as well as on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, X, Linkedin). For those who want to sail remotely, it will also start on Virtual Regatta. The first 100 virtual racers will be entered in a draw to win a DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE limited edition watch offered by B.R.M. Chronographs, the race’s partner.
Follow the racing here : https://drheam-cup.com/
Facebook: @drheamcup
Instagram: @drheam_cup
