Gavignet praises skipper Al Hasni after leading team to second place

Matt Jones - Editor 20:01 20/02/2016
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  • Finding a gem: Sidney Gavignet.

    Sidney Gavignet believes there is much more to come from his protégé Fahad Al Hasni after the Omani skipper led his Renaissance Services team to second place on leg two of the Sailing Arabia – The Tour on Friday.

    Al Hasni, who was part of the Frenchman’s EFG Bank Monaco crew that won the event last year, claimed a runners-up spot from Abu Dhabi to Doha behind his mentor, who said his own team had been made to work hard for a victory which consolidates their overall lead at the front of the nine-team fleet.

    “It feels very good, rewarding for the job we’ve done. All the team has been working very hard and everyone has done great work,” said Gavignet, who is looking to make it three SATT victories in a row this year.

    Of the man he used to call a team-mate, Gavignet said: “We are pleased because second behind us were Renaissance, skippered by Fahad, and you know it is 99 per cent of my old team.

    “They were a bit sad because they did pretty well in the inshore race in Abu Dhabi but made a little mistake which killed their result.

    “I told them to keep pushing and that the result would come, they were sailing very well, and now they are very happy. It was an explosion of happiness from them so I am very happy for them and very proud of them. They deserve it and I hope they will have some more success.”

    Al Hasni said he was “very proud” of his crew after a disappointing sixth place on the opening leg from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, but he refrained from predicting if renaissance could challenge EFG for the overall title.

    “I am very proud of my crew, what they have done, because it was very hard and we had to be patient,” he said.

    “We were racing them and it was not easy to catch them. We tried our best. We have a second place but it’s hard to say whether we can now use this to beat Sidney and EFG because it’s all about luck.”

    Flat seas and winds of around 10 knots saw the boats cross the Gulf faster than expected, although when the wind vanished 15 nautical miles from the finish line, race director Gilles Chiorri decided to end the stage early.

    The results were therefore decided by the order the fleet were in when they passed the final gate of the leg, 35nm from the finish line.

    Team Averda, led by young Brit Marcel Averda, completed the podium for leg two after around 26 hours at sea, but it was behind the front three from which the most interesting story of the leg arose, as Lorenz Mueller’s Bienne Voile pulled off a sensational comeback following a navigational error.

    Their crew had been in a strong position early in the leg but mistakenly passed a mark on the course on the wrong side, sailing 1.4nm off course by the time they realised their error – although they surged back to eventually take fourth place.

    “We had a bad moment and were a little desperate but put all our hopes on one shift, which came at exactly the moment we hoped,” said Muller.

    “We were absolutely last and overtook pretty much everyone.

    “Without that one little mistake we would have been right up near the front. For us it’s very satisfying that we recovered this place because otherwise it would have been very disappointing.”

    The sailors are back on the wateron Sunday for the third round of inshore racing, before they depart on the longest leg three from Doha to Khasab on Monday.

    Leg 2 results:

    1. EFG Bank Monaco (MON/Sidney Gavignet)
    2. Renaissance Services (OMA/Fahad Al Hasni)
    3. Team Averda (GBR/Marcel Herrera)
    4. Team Bienne Voile (SUI/Lorenz Mueller)
    5. Team Zain (KWT/Cedric Pouligny)
    6. Al Mouj, Muscat (OMA/Nico Lunven)
    7. TU Delft Challenge (NED/Wouter Sonnema)
    8. Oman Airports-Al Thuraya Women’s Team (OMA/Dee Caffari)
    9. Team Mangold (GER/Martin Felgenhauer)

    Overall results:

    1. EFG Bank Monaco (MON/Sidney Gavignet) – 6,75
    2. Team Averda (GBR/Marcel Herrera) – 9,00
    3. Renaissance Services (OMA/Fahad Al Hasni) – 13,25
    4. Team Zain (KWT/Cedric Pouligny) – 13,75
    5. Al Mouj, Muscat (OMA/Nico Lunven) – 15,25
    6. TU Delft Challenge (NED/Wouter Sonnema) – 17,25
    7. Team Bienne Voile (SUI/Lorenz Mueller) – 19,75
    8. Oman Airports-Al Thuraya Women’s Team (OMA/Dee Caffari) – 26,50
    9. Team Mangold (GER/Martin Felgenhauer) – 31,25

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