Windy weekend at Cowes for Cammas

''BMW ORACLE Racing Cammas' in trouble after a collision between few boats at first top mark, Skipper Franck Cammas (FRA) - iShares Cup Skandia Cowes Week' ThMartinez

The third stage of the iShares Cup never saw less than 25 knots in the Solent. At the helm of one of the two catamarans driven by the BMW Oracle team, Franck Cammas, the only French skipper involved, racked up a fine fourth place despite a capsize and a collision with BT.

With sixteen races sailed in three days, the least you can say is that the race committee weren't sparing of their efforts. At the heart of the Mecca of sailing, some of the top crews on the planet did battle in a steady breeze. The principle of the iShares Cup is simple: the small courses contested in the afternoon must be completed within thirty minutes and the committee then sets off a series of starts. In contrast the mornings are devoted to sailing with guests from the organisation.

The most professional crews preparing for the America's Cup showed themselves to be at the top of their game in these races. Honours went to the Swiss team Alinghi, driven by a certain Ed Baird, who proved to be the most regular: 'In this type of event, you have to try to avoid poor races as all of them count towards the ranking. Very often well placed, Alinghi escaped problems, which was similar to Holmatro who finished third' analyses Franck Cammas.

For his part, the skipper of Groupama looks back at these three intense days: 'The first day, we won two of the four races. Unfortunately we hit BT during a man?uvre, which we believed to be a result of a dodgy call by them but the jury decided otherwise. During the incident, the forward beam broke and we had to change boat. The new boat wasn't as well prepared and we never found the speed we'd had on the first boat again'.

At the close of the second day of racing, Franck and his crew composed of Thierry Fouchier, Simeon Tienpont and Joe Newton were positioned third in the ranking, a point behind Holmatro and a point ahead of Team Origin. Suffice to say that anything was still possible at that stage even though it was already looking difficult to make gains on Alinghi.

On Monday, the last day of racing, six races were sailed, with the wind as steady as the previous two days: 'Thanks to the work we did on the boat on the evening after the racing and on the morning prior to going sailing, we were a little quicker than the previous day. Strangely though we were always verging on capsize whenever we bore away even though the crew was well positioned towards the stern. In fact, we noticed too late in the day that the mainsail sheet on our new boat was too short to be able ease the sail as was necessary'.

Whilst a second place in one of the last races, synonymous with the same result in the general ranking, seemed to be a done deal, the second boat in the American team capsized as it bore away: 'Luckily we didn't break anything but it's a shame because we were right in the thick of the action. I had a superb team and we sailed pretty well. However, given the wind blowing across the course, it was more about handling the crises rather than anything else. It would be interesting to see what happens with less wind. The races would really be something'.

Fourth in the general ranking behind Alinghi, Team Origin and Holmatro, Team Cammas finished ahead of Team Spithill: 'James and his crew pulled off some really great moves but they weren't regular. In these conditions, he couldn't be better placed in the general' concluded the skipper of Groupama who will now return to France to monitor the rebuilding of Groupama as well as taking a few days' holiday.