Europe 1 New Man Star - Class 2 News
by Event Media 22 Jun 2000 12:33 BST
Class 2 take the limelight
Still with 6 monohulls from Class 1 racing, nevertheless the Class 2 boats in the Europe 1 New Man Star are taking the limelight now. The trimarans skippered by Hervé Cléris and Franck-Yves Escoffier are fairly evenly matched with still 250 miles to go, and the two leading monohulls of Andrea Gancia and Emma Richards just won’t leave each other alone!
Catherine Chabaud (Whirlpool) & Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) arrived over last night in Newport, respectively in 6th and 7th position, with 6 monohulls still to finish. Dominique Wavre (UBP) has regained his speed against Marc Thiercelin (Active Wear). These two are only 1.5 miles with only 155 miles to the finish. Surely the last duel we shall see in Class 1.
Less than 250 miles to go, Hervé Cléris (Tenez Bon Les Enfants) and Franck-Yves Escoffier (Deléage), the only two multihulls in class 2 are engaged in a veritable head to head on this transatlantic crossing. Franck-Yves seems to be retaining his energy as the underdog and lies only 12 miles behind the trimaran of Hervé Cléris, current record holder in this class since 1992.
In the monohull fleet, Emma Richards is surely inspired to imitate her fellow female British skipper and friend Ellen MacArthur and fights still to get to Newport ahead of the Class 2 mono’s. Frustrating for her Andrea Gancia (Nastro Azzurro) is yet again not positioned, however she has gained on Alex Thomson, 3rd in ‘sailthatdream.com’ in the last day, and we can only surmise that this means she won’t be giving the Italian any more reign either. After the 0.2m lead he had yesterday, I expect she has stuck with him or even overtaken again. With 250 miles to go she could still realise her goal.