Oman Air-Musandam wins Route des Princes first leg into Lisbon

Sidney Gavignet and the international crew of Oman Air-Musandam broke the finish line off Lisbon at 12:41:38 hrs local time (11:41:38hrs TU) to win the first leg of the inaugural Route des Princes multihull race around Europe from Valencia to Morlaix, France via stopovers in Lisbon, Dun Laoghaire Dublin and Plymouth.

Since starting from Valencia, Spain on Sunday afternoon the crew of Oman Air-Musandam  have been the most consistent race leaders, only passed twice since the first and only turning mark at Benicarlo, 30 miles north of Valencia. Each time they were overtaken it proved only very temporary and, sticking with their strategies, they drew ahead again to win into Lisbon by 44 minutes and 52 seconds ahead of Yann Guichard’s crew on Spindrift.

Skippered by France’s Sidney Gavignet, Oman Air-Musandam, has the most international team in the race, composed of two crew from France, two from Oman, one from England and one from Ireland.


After finishing a disappointing fourth on the six race inshore series in Valencia, Oman Air-Musandam bounced back with the perfect first offshore leg, earning maximum points – 40 for winning the leg and 2 points apiece for leading at the Benicarlo and Gibraltar marks.  The Oman flagged team now lead the overall standings on 44 points, four ahead of Spindrift.

When Gavignetg and his team pushed out to the west early this morning in search of the favourable shift in wind direction on which they were pinning their hopes of securing their victory on, they ceded their long standing lead to their pursuers Spindrift but the shift came and they were able to extend away again to win.

Though they lead for most of the course, holding a margin of some 20 miles or thereabouts for the majority of the course through the Mediterranean out into the Atlantic, the race for the Multi 50 class proved to be incredibly close.

Most of the time the two main protagonists fought it out within sight of each other with an intensity which was more akin to a round the buoys regatta. In the end it was Lalou Roucayrol’s Arkema-Région Aquitaine which prevailed by just 13 minutes and 18 seconds ahead of Yves Le Blevec’s Actual after 3 days 3 hours 46 minutes and 15 seconds.

“It was an incredible race. Since the start with Actual we sailed more or less side by side, covering, watching each other, even luffing like we were racing round three buoys. Yves Le Blevec and his crew sailed really well and so we are very proud to win, especially as this is our first big race.” Smiled skipper Roucayrol after finishing their first major race with his recently launched boat with a win.

In fact skipper Gavignet himself was the architect of the key move which allowed Oman Air-Musandam to earn an initial small lead during very early Monday morning which they were able to multiply to become more than 20 miles.

With no designated, specialist navigator in their crew, Gavignet assumes most of the responsibility for drawing down the weather information and preparing strategic choices which he then discusses with his main lieutenants. As they passed the first point on the descent of the Mediterranean, Cabo de la Nau he chose to stay further offshore than their rivals, thereby sailing a few more miles but they were able to stay with a more solid breeze and so build the lead which was to prove decisive. 

“To be honest I was asleep when Sidney made that call so he deserves all the credit for that, which really was the key move of the race.” laughed British veteran round the world racer Neal McDonald

“The move to stay east offshore on the first night was Sidney’s call, it was trade off between sailing the breeze and sailing more miles and it was probably the call of our race, we made that ten or 15 miles buffer on that one call.”

Gavignet paid tribute to his one pre race day seminar with renowned French meteo specialist Jean Yves Bernot for bolstering his confidence in his Mediterranean weather strategies: 

“I had just one day with Jean Yves Bernot on the weather before the delivery to Valencia and to be honest that made a lot of thing more clear in my mind. I would dedicate the leg to him. It was just one day but I would say that before I felt the weather might be a weakness, because we don’t have a dedicated navigator, but after that day I was feeling much more confident. I was feeling strong, so it feels good to have made these calls.”

Final standings Leg 1

Multi 50’s
1 Arkéma - Region Aquitaine, Lalou Roucayrol finish 12/06/2013 15:46:15 average 8.9kts
2 Actual, Yves Le Blevec finish 15:59:33, 8.87kts
3 FenêtréA – Cardina, Erwan Le Roux, 17:14:40, 8.73
DNS Rennes Métropole - Saint Malo Agglomération, Gilles Lamiré

MOD70
1 Oman Air – Musandam, Sidney Gavignet, finish 12/06/2013 11:41:38h average 11.08kts
2 Spindrift, Yann Guichard, 12:26:30, average 10.96kts
3 Edmond de Rothschild, Sébastien Josse, 15:31:36, 10.51kts
4 Virbac - Paprec 70, Jean-Pierre Dick,  15:43:25, 10.49  
ULTIME
1 Maxi 80 Prince de Bretagne, Lionel Lemonchois 13 12:20:58, 10.98

Rankings after Valencia Inshore and Leg 1 Valencia to Lisbon

MOD 70
1 : Oman Air – Musandam (48 pts)
2 : Spindrift (44 pts)
3 : Edmond de Rothschild (42 pts)
4 : Virbac-Paprec 70 (34 pts)

Ultime
1 : Maxi 80 Prince de Bretagne (44 pts)

Multi 50
1 : Arkema – Région Aquitaine (42 pts)
2 : Actual (36 pts)
3 : FenêtréA-Cardinal (32)
4: Rennes Métropole - Saint-Malo Agglomération (28)