Eurocat 2014, F18s: Iker & van West lead

All images MV / Catsalingnews. More at CSN FB later. —  After a blown out Thursday, Friday offered good conditions to complete with 4 races.
In the F18 Iker Martinez & Fer van West are leading, followed by Lagraviere-Jarlegan (Safran crew I published yesterday), Normand-Joubert 3rd and  Bontemps-Amiot 4th.

Really nice to see our Arg fleet friend, Antoine Joubert racing with Thomas Normad,  both pushing well known world class riders like Iker. Their bullet was a win over him and Fer, overtaking at the first offset mark and covering all the way to the finish.

Iker & Ferdinand got an express dial up racing together, and it was a good choice for Iker coming to Carnac to keep racing/training, as his N17 crew, Tara Pacheco, is recovering from an injury.

Yesterday when I went to salute Arnaud Jarlegan,  Morgan Lagraviere told me he was learning to sail multis, I replied he was in good hands. And it showed.. as they performed really well today for 2nd overall.
My Italian friends de Paoli-Cesari took 3 races to warm up, to end with a 2nd in the last race.

Last year I put Gurvan Bontemps & Ben Amiot , (riding Cirrus R at the time)  as my favorites for this 2014 season. Today they had speed but some errors kept them out of the top 3, currently holding a 4th overall.
Entertaining day of racing. On Saturday we will have the Long Distance, where they are going to race the Flying Phantom.

Nahan Outteridge is here for a test ride, and Loick might also be coming tomorrow.
We went to pick him and his girlfriend after the race, to Auray, not by car, but with the Goldfish ‘tender’,  passing through some great landscapes at the Golfe du Moribhan , Chateus included.
Nathan comes from racing at Hyeres past week, he is a truly down to earth guy, but he is lucky to have his girlfriend to take him around France, without her he might have ended at St Tropez..

This area of France is a gem for sailors and tourist alike. Got my camera out of battery after the 3rd race due to an inproper charge, so I couldn’t take some pics of the place.
I want  to thanks Nicolas Felix , head of Communications at Phantom International that kindly lent me his Canon to end the job for the racing today.
All shots done from the Flying Phantom Goldfish 28′ tender. Truly an incredible boat.
Check picks of the flying session we had on Tuesday here

F18 Results at
https://www.yccarnac.com/files/Documents/Regate/Eurocat/Resultats/eurocat_f18_general_apjury.htm

Full Results Links at https://www.yccarnac.com/results.html

As final note for the day, I was surprised to see 6 A-Cats in the parking lot, I saw Tibo Laudren by chance , had a chat with him and Herve Ledue, they wen to Carnac to train for the Europeans, and as they told me it is the first time with so many As at the Eurocat.