by Anne Hinton
The team racing, the first event of its kind in France, and therefore in something of an 'exhibition' style, will be held on the Loire at Nantes this coming weekend.
Two of France's leading match racers, Mathieu Richard and Damien Iehl, head up each of the two teams of two J80 boats. Those in the teams are:
Team 1
Boat One
Mathieu Richard
Matthieu Turpeau
Florent Paqiuer
Hugues Bernard
Boat Two
Adrien Mouillon
Quentin Bouchacourt
Matthieu Tiberghen
Nicolas Serand
Team 2
Boat One
Damien Iehl
Brieuc Oger
Henry Nicholas
Thomas Lacouture
Boat Two
Christophe Guéna
Paul Cloarec
Guillaume Le Tuaud
Joris Cocaud
It has to be said that team racing is best done with 3 boats sailing against each other. This permits various finishing combinations. With just 2 boats on each team, the team whose boat finishes fourth (last) always loses.
Further, three boats per team makes the situations more interesting and tactical all round - although life is not easy for umpires in team racing. From personal experience I can say that you may think a situation is developing ahead of you, and concentrate on that, but in the meanwhile three or more other situations may occur behind you - which you miss altogether and therefore have to green flag, which is far from ideal for fair competition.
Taking part in team racing heightens all aspects of racing skills, and is something to be strongly encouraged.
Mathieu Richard is a former World Champion team racer from his days in 420s. Many of the world's top match racers, like Mathieu Richard (who is currently leading the World Match Racing Tour in 2010), have a team racing background from school or university.
It will be great to see more team racing after university level; there is very little competition subsequently available in this discipline anywhere internationally at present.
APCC Voile Sportive
