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Transat 650

Ruyant, Delesne and Schipman on the prototypes podium

Le Diraison 4rth Bahia followed by Cuinet, Avram and Després

vendredi 23 octobre 2009Christophe Guigueno

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Thomas Ruyant on his proto France Faber No. 667, crossed the finish line of The Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6,50 on Thursday at 9h18 minutes and 34 seconds - GMT - 11h18 minutes and 34 seconds - French time. He won the stage Funchal - Salvador de Bahia and the race as his main opponnents, Delesne and Schipman arrived more than 3 hours behind him.

"I do not like it too much and I do not know what to say in those moments. It was a great feeling when I crossed the finish line. A great moment of happiness" said Thomas Ruyant when arriving in Bahia. Third of leg 1 in Funchal, Ruyant said at that time he did not pushed too much on his Finot-Conq design (a mini built for Isabelle Joschke in 2007). His goal was to arrive with a safe mini and to push in leg 2. That hat he did in the Doldrum. "I talked every day to my boat. I know her qualities and imperfections. She answered to all my expectations. I really took risks in the Doldrums. I was constantly at the helm saying, after there you will beat and you will rest. I really did not let go. I sometimes used my spinnaker even when I met with a squall. At this point I have gradually widened the gap. Then I made the crossing at top speed by helming almost all the time." Out of the Doldrums with a 30 nm lead, Ruyant increased it day after day to join Salvador de Bahia at 1rst place with a lead big enough to be the new title holder in the prototype division.

Second in the leg between Funchal, Salvador de Bahia was, surprinsingly, Bertrand Delesne (Entreprendre Durablement). Heni-Paul Schipman was the holder of place two but he fallend in a no wind hole when arriving in Bahia. Delesne, winner of leg 1 in Funchal, ovetook him to take place 2 in leg 2 for… 27 seconds ! "While leaving the Doldrums, I knew that it was finished for me. I had thought “if you are 40 milles behind anything is possible”. I had 80 of them. However i steered a lot, to catch up with this error... On the end, I was really surprised to see HP becalmed. I did not think of finding him there. For four days, I have been sailing under spinnaker. But I had 40 miles of delay on Schipman, two days ago… However, I lived a great adventure which corresponds so that I had come to seek. The boat is new, there had been eight month of bulding and eight month of navigation. The balance is positive."

Behind Delesne for the leg, Henri-Paul Schipman finishes the race second 2 hours and 20 minutes from Delesne. The young yacht designer who sails Maison de m’Avenir - Urbatys, the same boat that Yves Blévec helmed to the victory 2 years ago, lost the second place for 27 seconds ! "I knew that Thomas was going to attack like insane in that leg and that Bertrand would not release anything… but to have crossed and have recrossed their routes permanently really astounded me. It is that I must have a good boat…"

Fourth minis to join Bahia was another Manuard design, the full red one steered by Stephane Le Diraison. Second two years ago in the serie division, the skipper of Cultisol could not play the victory with the three other skippers. "I twice made four and they share the three first places. There is thus a logic. I would have however liked to take a small share of the cake while finishing on the podium of this leg. But as they do not make errors and go fast, that did not made the things easy. The important thing at the end of the day, it is that I went on a beautiful journey with a super boat."

The fifth one is Francis Cuinet ’s Plan Jardin, the older mini on the top five as this Bouvet design was launched in 2002. "I fought like crazy !" said the skipper when arriving in Bahia after a long race for the podium.

Sixth skipper has arrived this morning (french hour). Olivier Avram made a great come-back at the helm of Cap Monde 2, the sister-ship of Thomas Ruyant’s Faber France. Hi arrived in Brazil 26 minutes ahead of Fabien Després (Soitec).

Christophe Guigueno
- Quotes collected by the team of GPO / www.transat650.org


Voir en ligne : Photo ThMartinez/Sea&Co / www.thmartinez.com


Leg 2 rankins

- 1 667 RUYANT Thomas Faber France 18j 20h 16m 34s
- 2 754 DELESNE Bertrand ENTREPRENDRE DURABLEMENT 19j 2h 45m 43s
- 3 716 SCHIPMAN Henri Paul MAISON DE L’AVENIR URBATYS 19j 2h 46m 10s
- 4 679 LEDIRAISON Stéphane CULTISOL - MARINS SANS FRONTIERES 19j 4h 13m 50s
- 5 412 CUINET François PLAN Jardin 19j 9h 25m 17s
- 6 618 AVRAM Olivier Cap Monde 2 19j 17h 30m 43s
- 7 617 DESPRES Fabien SOITEC 19j 17h 56m 59s

Podiumof the Transat 650

- 1 667 RUYANT Thomas Faber France 24j 23h 38m 30s
- 2 754 DELESNE Bertrand ENTREPRENDRE DURABLEMENT 25j 3h 7m 4s
- 3 716 SCHIPMAN Henri Paul MAISON DE L’AVENIR URBATYS 25j 5h 26m 23s



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