The President’s report, Georges Guivarc’h:

Thank you to all the participants who made this edition a great success despite the difficult weather conditions that had been forecast.

Thanks to Danièle Le Fur, who was determined to welcome us despite a scheduled hospital stay on Monday, and to Yvon for his energy and his wonderful stories about the island of Houat.

On Thursday, after a tough convoy of the committee boat from Le Croisic in strong winds and squalls, the programme was uncertain.

A fine spectacle, with boats that had benefited from excellent refits carried out this year:

MOXIE, winner of both races, very elegant and very fast despite a few minor issues in its renewed youth.

AILE BLEUE, with a new carbon mast, and of course a solo delivery from Roscoff — bravo.

QUICKSILVER, beautifully restored after the anchoring incident in 2019, with a modified rudder and stern and new sails.

HAPPY, still in its striking yellow Route du Rhum livery.

TAHOMA, a 16-metre wooden-built catamaran weighing only 6.5 tonnes, a new Golden member, with many transatlantic crossings and cruises to the USA to its credit.

IRVI, the F40, was unable to participate due to the unavailability of part of the crew.

NADA, the small Newick trimaran, had to withdraw due to a broken rudder during a previous race. Christine Capdevielle, its crew member, unfortunately missed out on the Golden trophy, as did Hervé Nougier. Pierrick Tollemer, the other planned crew member, sailed instead on Aile Bleue (meaning two Route du Rhum skippers ended up on the same boat…).

Race results

First race (Saturday): Houat / Sauzon turning mark / Houat (~21 miles)

Steady northerly wind at 16 knots, with gusts.

Start close-hauled to close reach with reefed mainsails. The three trimarans — Moxie, Aile Bleue, Quicksilver — in that order, passed very close to the committee boat positioned at Beg Pell and held steady under engine.

Thanks to Laurence for managing the VHF start procedure, taking photos (not possible to do both simultaneously as the VHF was at the chart table), and timekeeping.

Moxie, Aile Bleue and Quicksilver were followed by Tahoma, which stayed at a safe distance so as not to interfere with the Golden competitors.

Happy came to greet us at anchor on Friday evening after sailing from Ouessant to Belle-Île, but could not participate as it had to return to the Gulf on Friday evening, later joining us for the second race on Sunday.

The run down to the finish line was on a close reach / beam reach, with full mainsail for some like Moxie, reefed for others.

1st Moxie, 2nd Aile Bleue, 3rd Quicksilver, 4th Tahoma — Winning time: 1h 41m 16s

Second race: Around Houat (~7 miles)

Start line same as before, finish at Mulon Er Yoc’h

Moderate NE wind at 10 knots

Start close-hauled with tacking towards Le Béniguet. Moxie, Aile Bleue, Quicksilver in that order at the committee boat, with Happy slightly downwind and Tahoma behind.

Round Houat with gennaker for some, spinnaker for others on the downwind leg, finishing across the line.

1st Moxie, 2nd Aile Bleue, 3rd Quicksilver, 4th Happy, 5th Tahoma — Winning time: 1h 5m 47s

The gap between 2nd and 3rd was only 25 seconds, leading some to joke that if the (engine-held) start line had been perfectly stable, they might have won — classic Golden humour.

Some would have liked a second lap, but with deliveries to complete before returning to work, most boats headed back to their home ports straight away.

Results announcement

The session was cancelled due to lack of time to go ashore. Results were announced by email.

Reception and dinner

As usual, excellent sea bream caught at Houat and grilled at Danièle and Yvon’s — thank you!

Thank you again for your participation and good spirits during this period of difficult distancing for sailing and racing.