Class 40 Mediterranean Trophy started with the CIC MED Channel Race

At 13:00 on Sunday, April 27, twelve Class 40 crews took the start for the longest Class 40 race in the Mediterranean.

This race is also the first race of the year in the Mediterranean Trophy of the Class 40 class association. The last race in the Mediterranean trophy, which consists of 6 races in total, is the Middle Sea Race on October 18.

The CIC MED Channel Race is organized as DUO (2 skippers). 22 of the 24 skippers are French, one Italian and one German. This is a statistic that clearly shows why French skippers are so successful in offshore racing.

The route of the race: Marseille (Start), round the buoy of Calvi (Corsica), pass through the channel between Corsica and Sardinia (Bonifacio), turn south to the island of Sardinia and finally round the island of Balereas-Mallorca and end in Marseille. Thus, the skippers will race a route of over 1,000 nautical miles.

The race started in very low weather and 2 boats abandoned the race. Considering that the low weather would dominate the course throughout the race, the course was shortened and a new route (approximately 874 nautical miles) was applied, returning through the Bonifacio channel to the island of Mallorca.

Credit Mutuel (#FRA 158) with Ian LIPINSKI-FRA/Alberto BONA-ITA finished 1st with 4 days 23h 21mins 11secs.

Second place went to Mikaël MERGUI-FRA/Keni PIPEROL-FRA CENTRAKOR (#FRA 183) with 5 days 0h 14mins and 54secs,

PRENDRE LA MER, AGIR POUR LA FORET (#FRA 89) with Mathieu CLAVEAU-FRA /Victoire BERGER-FRA (female sailor) took the third place with 5 days 8 hours 39 minutes and 13 seconds.

The first two places were taken by the new generation (Scow type) Class40s and the boat that finished in third place was one of the 2nd generation boats. And according to me, she realized the biggest surprise of the race.

Offshore races as Solo/Duo have become very popular all over the world. Such races should be organized in Turkey as well. Offshore racing teams should be established.

I hope we will see at least one Turkish team in this trophy in the coming years. I also hope that one of our races will be included in these big trophies.

Of course, the first condition for this is to have visionary presidents who closely follow the new developments and trends in the world. We can't even dream of reaching these levels, participating in these races, carrying out these organizations, by organizing these trumped-up organizations that we call yacht races, such as two buoy round trips or an island round trip.

The salt of the sea is in your face! Volkan Yemlihaoğlu – IOYC