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2008/07/04-14h27
The pressure mounts...
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| F18 Worlds - from 5th to 11th July in Nigrán (Pontevedra) - Spain |
| Saturday, July 5. At Nigrán, out of the Bay of Vigo in Spain, more than 160 Formula 18 crews will have to submit their catamarans
to the gauge committee which will ensure compliance with the rules of the class.
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For the first time in his sailing career, Franck Cammas will be amongst them. With his crew, Jérémie Lagarrigue, the five
times ORMA champion will do battle with the greatest world specialists in the series.
Australian world champions
Bundock - Ashby will be defending the title they acquired on home waters in Yeepon with just a one point lead over
the Australian and Dutch sailors Booth - Neuwenhuis.
Other favourites include French sailors Besson - Jerlegan
and Mourniac - Citeau who will be formidable competitors.
Under these conditions, Groupama's
crew have a tough task ahead of them.
It will certainly be difficult but not impossible because, as usual, the skipper
of Groupama has really prepared hard for this world championship: "the hull of our Nacra catamaran is as smooth as
it possibly can be. Michel Letty, the team's préparateur has put all his know-how into it. The same is true of the rig and
the carbon spreaders in particular, made by Thierry Madec, who is with us in Spain. All that remains now is for Jérémie and
I to take our marks again as we haven't sailed together much since our victory in the Raid des 3 Phares".
There
will be a perfect opportunity to do this today, Friday, with a training session planned on one of the two race zones to the
north of the Ria de Vigo. As for the actual races, these will begin on Monday and continue until Friday 11th after around
fifteen races have been contested.
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