LA GENERALI MEDITERRANEE 14-28 JUNE 2003
RACE 13 : FINAL RACE OF REGATTA ABANDONED

FINAL RACE ABANDONED, DAVIES 6TH ROOKIE OVERALL

IN BRIEF:

* Much to the angst of the race committee of La Generali Méditerranée and the 31 skippers, hoping to make one final move in the last day of racing, the wind refused to perform... The final race was abandoned as the wind disappeared altogether...leaving the skippers powerless and the standings as of the end of play yesterday...

* Sam Davies racing her Figaro Béneteau one-design SKANDIA ends her first solo Figaro regatta as sixth placed Rookie out of 11 competing and 24th boat overall... "It's a shame to finish the regatta like this...I was pretty fired up for the last day and was in 6th or 7th place when they abandoned the race...could have been an awesome result..."

* Gildas Morvan racing Cercle Vert wins La Generali Méditerranée overall as Erwan Tabarly is robbed of any hope of impacting on his four-point lead today. Morvan, Armel Le Cleac'h and Eric Drouglazet all scored three race wins apiece but it was Morvan who consistently finished in the top 10, bar one 16th place, and that was enough to keep him at the top of the leaderboard and to finally clinch the overall win from Tabarly.

* Franck-Yves Escoffier racing Crepes Whaou! wins the Rookie class... Escoffier is no stranger to solo racing and won the Class 2 multihull division in last year's Route du Rhum. Second placed Rookie was Christophe Arthaud followed by Marc Emig, the talented 34 year old sailor who won the Tour de France a la Voile in 2001...

* Now SKANDIA will be transported to La Rochelle (NW coast of France) for Davies to begin her next training programme between now and the start of the major solo event of the Figaro season...the Solitaire du Figaro starting on 30th July from Les Sables d'Olonne (home port of the Vendée Globe).

SAM ON HER OVERALL PERFORMANCE:

"It was a lottery out there today but a real shame to have ended the regatta with an abandonment. I was pretty fired up for the final day of racing wanting to hold on to my hard-fought for 24th place. The race committee started us in 6 knots of breeze and there was a massive wind shift after they had laid the course and before the start... I got round the first mark then seemed to find myself my own little zephyr of wind and sailed round the fleet in front of me. I think I was in 6th or 7th place when they abandoned the race - it could have been an awesome result but who knows..."

"I got better through the regatta...my results got better and more consistent towards the end as I managed to finish in the top twenty in the last four races. I have achieved what I wanted which was to learn as much as I could from this solo regatta and now I know what I need to concentrate on between now and the start of the Solitaire."

"There is not much time between now and the start of the main event and I just want to focus my training on boat speed and recording all the different boat settings which you can't do when you are racing. I know what I need to do and that will make all the difference going into the Solitaire..."

"Coming into this first solo event, I was feeling pretty apprehensive and really wanted to have more time training so I am really pleased with my performance in my first solo regatta against this class of competition... It is pretty over-whelming on the dockside to see the likes of Tabarly, Morvan and Drouglazet and know these are the guys you are racing against! It's a bit like turning up to a go-karting event and looking across and seeing Schumacher and Coulthard on the starting grid!"

"I think I proved myself on the long 190 mile race from Port Camargue. It was a marathon...and just so intense all the time. In the opening stages when we were blasting downwind in 35 knots, we were fast and passed quite a few boats...when I got to Beaulieau, I felt I had earned some respect from the top guys...not everyone had their spinnakers up out there."

PERFORMANCE PARTNER OF THE DAY: Bollé
Official sunglasses provider to Ellen MacArthur and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team http://www.offshorechallenges.com/bolle

FINAL RESULTS - RACE 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12 - 28 JUNE: (Skipper/boat name/race result/overall position/total points)
NB: double points scored for offshore legs

Gildas Morvan / CERCLE VERT / 3-3-2-4-8-2-7-1-16-1-1-2 / 1st overall (54 points) Erwan Tabarly / THALES / 8-8-3-2-6-1-1-4-9-4-3-3 / 2nd overall (58 points) Jérémie Beyou / DELTA DORE / 2-5-8-3-3-8-3-10-8-2-5-6 / 3rd overall (83 points) Armel Le Cleac'h / CREALINE / 1-1-11-6-1-4-2-5-10-15-4-11 / 4th overall (86 points) Laurent Pellecuer / AON / 17-2-6-7-15-3-8-2-2-10-9-4 / 5th overall (94 points) Eric Drouglazet / DAVID OLIVER / 4-4-1-1-2-15-4-16-1-3-dnf-7 / 6th overall (107 points) Gilles Chiorri / METEO CONSULT GROUPE / 14-9-9-9-9-5-5-18-3-6-11-5 / 7th overall (117 points) Yann Elies / GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES / 5-7-22-8-4-14-10-6-12-5-2-1 / 8th overall (132 points) Charles Caudrelier Benac / BOSTIK FINDLEY / 11-18-18-5-5-6-6-8-4-7-13-10 / 9th overall (134 points) Gwenael Riou / ESPOIR CEDIT AGRICOLE / 9-12-4-16-10-19-19-9-19-9-6-16 / 10th overall (175 points) Samantha Davies* / SKANDIA / 20-27-30-23-24-13-27-23-18-19-20-17 / 24th overall (303 points)

* Newcomer to event or in French "Bizuth" ie Rookie

ROOKIE STANDINGS:
Franck-Yves Escoffier / CREPES WHAOU! (217 points)
Christophe Artaud / PETITS-PETONS (232 points)
Marc Emig / IN EXTREMIS (236 points)
Christopher Pratt / CAFE MALONGO (240 points)
Yves Le Blevec / REVE DE GRAND - ACTUAL INTERIM (246 points) Samantha Davies / SKANDIA (303 points) Christophe Bouvet / SOR TMC (342 points) Stéphane Sevaux / PLUS PHARMACIE (371 points) Corrado Agusta / SECTOR SPORT WATCHES (383 points) Eric Pilat / ALTAVENTURE/SNSM (391 points) Sander Bakker / STERN GROEP (405 points)

For further information on La Générali Médierranée please visit http://www.generalimed.com