Grand Prix Ecole Navale 2010

One of the most prestigious European one design races, organized by French Naval academy lived up to our expectations. Seascapes joined renown classes like J80, J22, Open 750 and 570 and others in three day round the cans racing in the bay of Brest in beautiful Brittany.

All together 7 Seascapes joined making the most international class with crews from France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Slovenia. Having borrowed GER13 from our German owner (Armin thank you again) added to the national diversity.

First day was rainy and gusty due to the passage of the cold front, which resulted in very difficult sailing conditions. Seascapes shared the race field with 36 Open 570, and start line with I5.5 and J22. Especially racing together with Open 570 was a little taste of things to come for Seascape class. Both boats perform similarly which at times gave impression how will racing in Seascape one design class look like in few years.

second and third day ended up in almost perfect conditions with 10-15 knots of wind, sunshine and all in all perfect organization both on the water and on the land. At the end the sailmakers P. Guillomet  and  P. Allain, who beefed up their team with Seascape designer S. Manuard as helm won the first GPEN on FRA59. They were followed by FRA33 skippered by our French dealer Francois Coutant with Andraz Mihelin from Seascape sailing on GER13 closing the podium. Full results here.

Even though placed on extreme end of Europe GPEN proved to be a must for all of the Seascape owners who are looking for high level racing in the sailing heart of Europe. Hope to see you there next year.

More photos form GPEN here and here.