Martinique Cata Raid 2018: Day 3

Sadly no more pics coming from Martinique this year as previous ones from Contin. But even if you don’t have a pro photgrapher anyone can take some photos, specially for these events promotion. Below daily report sent by the Org translated from French.
Orion Martin & Charles Gate (Cirrus R2 / Northtrop Sails) continue to lead after 3 stages.

Official web martiniquecataraid.com
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01/22/2017 Communiqué n ° 3: Tuesday 22 January 2018
Day 3 : Stage LE PRECHEUR – FORT DE FRANCE
Victory of the 3rd stage went for Nicolas Gillet and Nicolas Poix, Orion MARTIN and Charles GATE remain at the top of the rankings.

Start of the 3rd race was done in front of LE PRECHEUR on Tuesday, January 23rd. The start was
had very weak winds that barely allowed the catamarans to advance, later the wind  gradually increased from the ground, which allowed a big start of the Toulon crew MARTIN / GATE, while further offshore, crews Gillet / Poix and Boulogne / Boulogne remained behind due to lack of wind.

This part of the race, downwind the Caribbean coast has seen many changes in wind and classification, with the CHAMPANHAC / DHALENNES leading the way over a good part of this course, until a regrouping of the first 9, who separaed from the rest of the fleet.
Several leaders succeeded one another, in a changing wind ….

The Boulogne brothers, on a strong gust of wind under spinnaker, capsized while they had just taken the lead. Shortly after the wind was clearly strengthening and three crews took control: GFA Caraibes with Nicolas GILLET / Nicolas POIX, Emmanuel and Vincent BOULOGNE, and Stéphane KIEFFER and Olivier LECOMTE. The entrance to the Bay of Fort de France was upwind, in a wind of 20 knots before the arrival of a violent grain with nearly 30 knots and heavy rain making visibility very low.

The first crews were already on an edge towards the buoy of Pointe du Bout while the following underwent this grain in a portion of wiping.

In the end, after a good fight, the local crew Nicolas Gillet and Nicolas Poix won this round, ahead of Emmanuel and Vincent Boulogne. In third position Orion Martin and Raphael GATE, authors of a good recovery, concedes only 1min56, and thus keeps the lead of the general classification.

General classification:
Emmanuel and Vincent Boulogne are closer to the leaders and are only 2min44 behind, Benoit Champanhac and Hugo Dhalenne are 3rd at 10min 32 ahead of GILLET / POIX at 18min20. Swiss crew Andreas LUTZ and Raymond Schlatter lose 6 places and general and are now 23 minutes from the first

They said:
Nicolas Gillet, Nicolas Poix: After the departure with very little wind, it was a bit scary to see the first fired on the ground, but we managed to come back little by little, and when the first 6 to 8 boats were are grouped, we managed by drawing a left edge to find a good wind first, then the wind came back stronger, and we shot several times on the ground, to try to have fewer waves. But we thought we could win only 50 meters before the finish, so Emmanuel and Vincent Boulogne were threatening.

Olivier Lecomte / Stéphane Kieffer: We had already restarted 10 minutes yesterday on the heat, and there we take another twenty minutes on some of our opponents, that’s good, because we lost a lot of time on the first day by breaking our link bar (which connects the two rudders between them) This race was extremely tactical; when the wind came back, we turned into the refusal (wind away from the axis by lengthening the road) and then we stayed fairly centered. We were passed a few meters before the arrival by Orion and Charles (MARTIN / GATE) who came back very hard

Complete Rankings https://martiniquecataraid.com/fr/pages/La_course-Classements_2018/
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