Krys Ocean Race

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Prelude to the Prologue

Sunday. There is no such thing as a day of rest on the KRYS OCEAN RACE at the Newport Shipyard where the shore crews and race teams know that they now have less than 24 hours left before the prologue race from Newport to New York.

The Prologue starts Monday 5 PM for the short sprint to the Big Apple which will be sailed with media and VIP guest crews aboard, allowing them the first ever chance to experience, at first hand, life on board the MOD70’s in race mode. Though there are no race points at stake for the prologue, the challenge to be first into New York is one that all five teams will not take lightly.

Equally, though, just as on the KRYS OCEAN RACE itself, this preliminary course will be about finding the right balance, to make sure the boats reach New York in the same race-ready shape as they leave Newport. Once the MOD70’s are in Manhattan’s North Cove Marina, where they will be based until the start of the Transatlantic on 7th July, the boats are effectively ‘locked down’ with no further work allowed by their technical teams.

With a quickly changing weather forecast the race direction have not yet chosen which of the three courses will be set:

One course is about 150 miles leaving Newport, to Block Island to starboard, to Long Island to starboard, finishing in New York. The second is 220 miles to a point to the south of Newport and the third is 320 miles. The objective is to have the boats finishing in New York at around midday.

While the final preliminaries are running down in Newport, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild’s skipper Sébastien Josse has been overseeing the team’s build up to the start. He has been a keen observer of the America’s Cup World Series and has cast an eye to the Volvo Ocean Race where the French Groupama team – which he sailed with – is presently on course to win. But Josse says he would not swap his current role for anything….

“I am very proud and pleased for the guys on Groupama, to see French guys ready to beat everyone…..but for me in my personal life this is the one opportunity to do this and it is one not to be missed.” Josse smiles, “ Here I have a sponsor who says ‘OK, you have no experience in multihulls but here is a chance for you. So when this opportunity came I seized it with both hands, I went straight for it. I come from monohulls and I did that for ten years, I know I can do the Route du Rhum, my own campaigns in the future, I am really just so happy to be here with this chance.”

“This is the most exciting thing I have done. It is brand new. I started with clean sheet of paper….and I love to go fast in all the sailing I do, Moth sailing, kite surfing, wind surfing, a lot of things like that. With these types of boats you go fast, average 30-32 knots. Our fastest is 38.6kts but we can go 40 I am sure.”

Read full interview at http://www.krys-oceanrace.com/en/new...-lifetime.html

Ryan Breymaier is the only American sailor among the KRYS OCEAN RACE crews. Originally from Annapolis, Breymaier lived in Newport for a couple of years and is a huge fan of this sailing city. He sails on Musandam-Oman Sail with French skipper Sidney Gavignet with a crew that includes native Omani sailors and English record breaking sailor Brian Thompson.
Breymaier completed his first non stop round the world race last year, finishing fifth in the two handed Barcelona World Race with his German co-skipper Boris Herrmann. After training extensively with Roland ‘Bilou’ Jourdain’s MOD70 Veolia Environnement team, which had to withdraw when their sponsorship stopped, Breymaier is now racing with the Musandam-Oman Sail project, accumulating more than 14,000 ocean miles on the MOD70’s.

“I used to live here for a while’ Breymaier says, “and I know so many people here and all the places to hang out and so that has been very nice, but that has been balanced with a lot of boat work. But it is great to be in such an awesome place to be, especially with the Cup in town. It is such a vibrant town which is so interested in everything sailing.”

“It is a shame I am the only American in this race and that we have not yet figured out how to have an American team involved. I have been trying but it is not that easy. It would be really good to have more Americans interested in offshore sailing in general and MOD70’s specifically, but the only way to have that happen is with events like this now. I think we have sowed the seeds being here. Everyone has wanted to come sailing on the boats. All the owners of the big boats here have taken an interest here when they have come down the dock. They have stopped by and these are the kind of people who could put together a programme for these kind of boats.”

“ Everyone I have met here can’t help but be interested in this KRYS OCEAN RACE.
This town embraces anything to do with sailing, but this type of sailing has really been popularised to huge extent by the change to multihulls of the America’s Cup and so that is good for this too.”

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July 2, 2012

Goodbye Newport, Hello New York!

There may be no Multi One Championship points at stake for the MOD70’s when they bid farewell to Newport RI late this Monday afternoon and head to New York, but all of the five skippers confirmed this morning that that the memorable experience of arriving in to New York under sail would be made sweetest by leading across the finish line tomorrow.

It is the first time that all five MOD70’s will line up in anger against each other and the crews will be supplemented by a number of media guests who have front row seats for this first initial skirmish.

The start on Narrangansett Bay off Newport is at 1700 hrs (local) where the fleet make a short, two leg opening gambit before leaving on the short, most direct of the three course options.

Course A takes them out to a turn SW at Block Island, then the course runs parallel to Long Island to a finish line just shy of the Verrazano Narrows bridge. That makes a course distance of around 150 miles. After the boats finish they will regroup and make a sail past the Statue of Liberty and up to the North Cove Marina.

The first boats should reach the finish line between 1000 hrs and 1100 hrs local time (1500 to 1600 hrs GMT) Tuesday morning. Though it is something of a delivery trip, a dress rehearsal which serves the purpose of getting the fleet to the start city for the KRYS OCEAN RACE, all of the teams will be pushing hard to be there first.

“We will be in full race mode.” FONCIA’s skipper Michel Desjoyeaux said this morning. “Though it is not a part of the classification for us all, it will be one more training race for us. And we want to show that we are in a good racing shape for the boat and for the crew. I think we will have medium winds and a light finish. I have never ever arrived in New York by sail and so it will be nice to sail past the Statue de la Liberté and I am looking forwards to that”

Desjoyeaux and his Foncia crew will be joined by CNN MainSail’s presenter, double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson for the passage to New York. Among the other media guests who will enjoy the unique race are Sailing World’s Stuart Streuli on Musandam-Oman Sail, Sail magazine’s Adam Cort on Race for Water, Chris Museler from the New York Times and Jeniece Pettit from Bloomberg News on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild.

Quotes
Sidney Gavignet, skipper, MOD 70 Musandam-Oman Sail; “There will be a full moon which is always great, it is nice to have some light. Everything is easier. Otherwise for us it is useful after a week of non sailing just to get all the team into racing mode again. It maybe does not count but we take it very, very seriously as a set up for the race. So we will be out early. We are very happy. And for our Omani’s it will be fantastic to arrive in New York for their first time ever, by sea. I arrived many years ago on La Poste from Puerto Rico and it is a magical memory.”

Sébastien Josse, skipper, MOD 70 Groupe Edmond de Rothschild: “What is important is next Saturday, but it is good to leave here and do some offshore sailing with our team. If we are there first that is great for us, but if we are last it is no big deal.”

Stève Ravussin, skipper of MOD70 Race For Water: "A prologue is a prologue but everyone will be going for it. It will be a short course but it is useful before the start of a Transat! This trial run will allow us aboard Race For Water to get just a little more experience and refine the work cohesion on board because we have not sailed so much together. But we are happy to be going racing and see the dividend for all of our hard work.”

Leo Lucet, crew of MOD70 Spindrift racing: "For our young team which is racing Spindrift, the KRYS OCEAN RACE is really a trial run at all levels. The MOD70 Spindrift racing is a brand new boat, Yann has put the crew together from scratch and we have had some training and the delivery passage here to the United States. This will be a first race for our team. So we go with great humility but we are cool about it.”

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July 2, 2012

Groupe Edmond de Rothschild leading the dance.

Sebastien Josse and his young crew on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild made the best start to the KRYS OCEAN RACE prologue, leading the MOD70 fleet out of Newport en route for New York City.

History for the fleet was made when the five MOD70's answered the start gun as one, lining up in picture postcard Newport conditions.
In the puffy, gusty 11-15kts NW'ly breeze Josse and his crew were quickest off the start line and were immediately able to give a flash of just how exciting inshore racing on the MOD70's will be. They were powered up immediately to make an early jump on Steve Ravussin's Race for water on a short, rapid reach to the first of two rounding marks.

At the first turn Yann Guichard's slick team on Spindrift racing were able to seize second, while the wily Michel Desjoyeaux and his FONCIA lay third as they bid farewell to Newport.
The very best of the high speed action was in the Bay, each of the MOD70's successively accelerating on to one hull.

Although Groupe Edmond de Rothschild had built a decent lead by time the fleet were beating upwind, against the current, the wind was already falling, true to the forecast for gentle winds for the passage to New York, where the leaders should arrive between 10:00hrs and 11:00hrs Tuesday morning.

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Race For Water wins the KRYS OCEAN RACE prologue

Steve Ravussin and crew of the MOD70 Race for Water won the 'race to New York’, KRYS OCEAN RACE prologue from Newport to New York when they passed Groupe Edmond de Rothschild in the final half mile to the finish line.

Ravussin, one of the founders of the MOD70 class, could not contain his delight as he hugged his crew, which included class President Marco Simeoni.

In very light winds, Ravussin and his team looked to have slowed badly on the Coney Island shore, snared in a big calm zone. But when they extracted themselves they were able to sail a more direct course, accelerating past the race leader to steal a morale boosting first gun, just ahead of Seb Josse's team which lead out of Newport last night.

Race For Water completed the course in 12 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds, just 2 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. Spindrift racing skippered by Yann Guichard closed in on 3rd with FONCIA right behind. Musandam-Oman Sail brings to a conclusion the prologue from Newport to New York after sixteen hours of racing.

The fleet completes the race with a parade sail up the Hudson River to their base at North Cove Marina in on the South of Manhattan, where the trimarans will be based until the start of the KRYS OCEAN RACE on Saturday 7th July.

KRYS OCEAN RACE provisional results
1) Race For Water ( Stève Ravussin) finised at 12h53’20’’ (CET)
2) Groupe Edmond de Rothschild (Sébastien Josse) finished at 12h55’50’’ (CET)
3) Spindrift racing (Yann Guichard) finished at 13h35’08’’ (CET)
4) FONCIA (Michel Desjoyeaux) finished at 13h38’44’’ (CET)
5) Musandam-Oman Sail (Sidney Gavignet) finised at 14h04’01’’ (CET)

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July 7, 2012

Goodbye New York, hello Atlantic.

Temperatures were sweltering, the pressure intense as New York bid farewell to the MOD70 fleet when if left the sticky, busy confines of the Hudson River bound for the liberty of the open sea and the start of the KRYS OCEAN RACE, 2950 high speed miles to Brest.

Winds were only light on New York's hottest day of 2012 so far, with only the occasional puff to send the fleet of five MOD70's en route, though the strong contrary current made life hard when the giant mulihulls stuck to the water.

Just as they did on Monday's dress rehearsal prologue start in Newport, Seb Josse and his well drilled, young crew on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild proved quickest out of the blocks, filling their gennaker headsail first to accelerate smoothly away from the fleet.
Though they all compressed again at the upriver turning mark, set off the North Cove Marina, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild rebuilt their margin when they stuck to the Jersey shore and slid away, leading Musandam-Oman Sail out to towards the Atlantic.

With the Hudson River mirror calm in the early morning, the departure from the quiet sanctuary of Manhattan’s North Cove Marina was one filled with emotion, not only as crew bid their dockside farewells to family, friends and hard working shore crews, but these minutes signified the final end of the three year preparation, planning and execution period for the exciting new MOD70 class and the Multi One Championship. The time has come to go racing.

Ahead is a six day sprint across the Atlantic to Brest, which will test the five teams’ abilities to maintain high speeds hour-after-hour. And in the new fleet which is studded with the fastest ocean racers on the planet, all are sure the level will be high, but the question most teams were pondering as they left today was exactly how high?


Quotes:

Michel Desjoyeaux, skipper of FONCIA: "It will be fun and interesting in this new race. We leave just ahead of a cold front, which is good because it will get us down to the Gulf Stream quickly and then we will go fast to the first mark of the course, the Scilly Isles. Until then we will be downwind but after that it will be about managing the finish into Brest. And being one design means that if you are not as fast as your neighbour then you are doing something wrong and have to adjust to be faster. We have a strategy for the race, but of course sailing is never an exact science so we adjust as we go.”

Stève Ravussin, skipper Race for Water: “ I love the speed and this KRYS OCEAN RACE across the Atlantic is only about speed. I think we can make a good race. I am never nervous, life is good. Three years of working for the first Transat for the class and here we are with a perfect forecast. It will be windy. And this is the perfect boat for me.”

Yann Guichard, skipper Spindrift racing: “I am ready, we have been waiting for this for a long time and here we are with a fantastic forecast. I think it will be really fast and a bit wet. The level will be really high, the rhythm needs to be very high because we know everyone will be pushing very hard. We have to be there. It depends, if we are comfortable with the boat and the weather I am sure that we can be the team that sets the level.

Sébastien Josse, skipper Groupe Edmond de Rothschild: “ The weather looks just as it has for the last three days so we expect a fast Transat, downwind. All good. For us it is more than a year that we have trained together and it is now the perfect timing for us to be going racing for my crew. With the background we have we have done enough training and so we are really confident in the boat and with the crew. I don’t feel nervous at all. I know where we go, it is just six days of sailing, I know my crew so well and we are not a crazy crew. You are nervous where you don’t know where you are going or what might happen, but this is just a front, not a big low pressure. Maybe it’s windy, but it’s not the Southern Ocean.
The question is how hard to push. The level is high and so you don’t know whether it will be crazy or be smart and sensible, and you have to find that level. In 48 hours it will start to be windy, with more than 30kts, and that is when you have to decide which gear to use, whether to be in sixth gear or five for a bit.”

Ryan Breyamaier, Musandam-Oman Sail: “I am so proud to be representing my country getting out of here in the shadow of these skyscrapers and looking forwards to an amazing passage on a great boat. The forecast is great and we plan to take full advantage so that we can be there to celebrate Bastille Day in good shape, and that will be huge.”