Vendée Globe

Yesterday evening, Mike Golding won the SNSM race after an unrelenting battle against the other 60-foot IMOCA class boats taking part in this race between Saint Nazaire and Saint Malo. Mike Golding and ECOVER set a new course record for this 284 mile event. The previous record held by Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac-Paprec was 1 day 10 hours 58 minutes 44 seconds.

Mike Golding and the crew of ECOVER won the race between Saint-Nazaire and Saint-Malo improving on the record for this 284-mile event around the Breton coast by 2 hours 10 minutes and 9 seconds. «I’m very pleased about our performance. We were up there at the front from the start and never more than half a mile away from Sill & Véolia. We had to carry out at least 20 gybes yesterday afternoon to try to get them to make a mistake and we managed to widen the gap by sailing slightly further out to sea. This is somewhat of a revenge victory for Mike over Bilou, when we think that last year Sill & Véolia overtook ECOVER in the home stretches to win the Calais Round Britain Race. «It could very easily have gone the other way, continued Mike. Sill & Véolia had a faultless race. In fact, all the 60-footers were grouped together and Bernard (Stamm) almost snatched second place at the end. It was great racing against him, and it just proved that his boat can be very efficient in light airs.» For Golding, the IMOCA World champion for the past two years and FICO World champion in 2005, it was important to stay up there in this fight with the best French teams of the moment. «It helped us enormously having local people on board with their knowledge of the Breton coast. Thanks to Laurent (Mahy) and Patrice (Carpentier), we were able to take some short cuts and sail more closely to the coast.»

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