1 reply to this topic

[Carter Kenehan]

Hello- I found myself agreeing to help in the US promote, gather some research, build a fb page for the French student organized 45th annual EDHEC Sailing Cup. It is a huge event in Europe and the students are hoping to get a few more US teams over there. About 200 boats and 1,000 sailors race.

I am a mom of a sailor only, sorry, and have a basic question.

Can some one tell me if I can call this - Off Shore Racing, or Coastal? Not Big Boat racing?

This year it is in Brest, France and there are two courses- one tactical the other looks off shore?

The Boats are Farr 30 (ex-MUMM 30), Grand Surprise, J/80, Open 5.7 and Longtze. It is also open to the monohull boats that belong to the French HN (National Handicap) racing classes with a rating included between 14 and 33.5 and with a Length Over All (LOA) included between 8 meters (about 26.25 feet) and 16 meters (about 52.5 feet).

Any help would be great! I hope this is an OK place to ask!

Attached Files

•  TM-44(21).jpg   128.95K   1 downloads

[moody frog]

As a very early competitor and later helping the kids to compete.
Here is what I can say.

I would call it coastal and inshore.
About 30 years ago they chose to make it a "wide audience" event, so no more hard-core offshore legs.
Because of this, some crews are so-so and under pressure from CG and such organizations, this put paid to long tough races and/or heavy-weather sailing.

Therefore, there is room for sailing the EDHEC in many different ways from "fun-sailing" to hard core racing which you may find in some of the OD classes.
This may be even more true in Brest which offers the choice of sheltered or non-sheltered courses.

One thing you must also know is that this is as much a fun event as a sailing-race, schools and universities entering more people in the "shore" events - which can (do) quickly turn into wild "spring break" style - than in the sailing event.

A number of entrants also have "rotary" crews, if only to cover for the "out-of-order" crew-member on any morning.

I am sure you have looked at the race website but here it is: http://www.ccedhec.com/

The vids tell it all I think: http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=PZvnVY2_L6s ; http://www.youtube.c...h?v=R4TJEcgNAyA ; much more on you-tube.

PS: while each school-uni has its own approach to the event and targets to be met, the usual way is to tell your mum (and/or sponsors) you are going racing and look forward to different fun (unless mum and/or dad have taken part in their youth)