Yacht Club de Monaco excelled at the Marseille SNIM. For this 60th edition held 3-6 April, the Monegasque sailors were competing on the Paris Olympic venue that lived up to its reputation. The result was a masterly victory in IRC 2 for Terrible Joy and 2nd place in IRC 0-1 for Raving Swan at the end of a full-on weekend where nothing came easy.
For the 60th anniversary, the SNIM didn’t break with tradition. For the first races, the venue set the pace with a strong westerly and challenging sea forcing crews to pull out all the stops. The rest of the weekend saw a radical change of pace with much lighter conditions followed on the last day by a more predictable 10-15 knot thermal breeze. All crews were put to the test between the local effects, wind shifts and pressure variations that required crews to constantly adapt tactics and manoeuvres.
In these conditions, Raving Swan, a Swan 42 competing in IRC 0-1 pulled off a superb 2nd place after six races in a fleet of nine competitors. On board were Antoine Arnoult, Nicolas Bouchet, Axelle Foucaud and Philippe Buchart, four YCM graduates, including two former Sports Section members and regulars on the one design circuits. The team kept up the pace from start to finish, maintaining their presence in the vanguard and adapting well to the changeable conditions to secure a well-deserved podium finish.
In IRC 2, the result was even more decisive, with Loïc Pompée’s Cape 31 Terrible Joy dominating the class to win five of the six races in real time. There was no let-up in their performance throughout the weekend. During Friday’s strong conditions, the crew fully exploited the boat’s potential, particularly on the long downwind legs, with speeds topping out at 24 knots. The rest of the weekend demanded a very different approach. The light airs required finely tuned tactics, finesse and more precision with positioning, adjustments the crew absorbed without hesitation, up to the final day raced in a fluctuating 13-15 knot thermal breeze.
Once again, Yacht Club de Monaco excelled at the SNIM in Marseille. What stood out from this edition was that it was not about winning an isolated race but the ability to be consistent throughout the regatta. Terrible Joy pulled off a near-perfect set of victories, with Raving Swan taking another tack but following the same logic. Two different approaches, but with one thing in common: being in control for the long haul.
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