The La Rochelle Nautique sailing club is organizing the J80 world championships from July 6 to 13 at the Minimes nautical center in La Rochelle.
It’s a return to basics for the J80 fleet. The first world championship in France was organized and contested in La Rochelle in 2002. 22 years later, the city of Charente-Maritime will once again host the world championships, from July 6 to 13. In charge of its organization, La Rochelle Nautique has, a few days before departure, 70 registered participants.
For several weeks, the French team has been training massively to hope to perform at home. Monitoring-coaching was carried out on several crews who are able to compete for the podium in these championships. This is the case of the Naval School CV with Pierre Laouénan and PL Yachting Armen Habitat with Simon Moriceau. These two crews were supervised, not without coincidence, by Xavier Rohart, J80 world champion…. in 2002 in La Rochelle. Other younger skippers (U25) were detected by the French Sailing Federation: Paul Loiseau with Télesto, Martin Allix with Sail in Blue and Victorien Eon with Pornic Team Jeunes. Facing them, several nations have announced their presence: China, India, Switzerland, Hong Kong and even Spain.
A great adversity expected in the Coupe de France
An event counting towards the J80 French Cup, these championships will attract the best practitioners in the territory. In the masters, Bruno Royer de Véricourt currently dominates the general classification ahead of Patrick Bot and Gilles Briend. In the hopefuls, Brestois Paul Loiseau and Victor Goyard should be present. Claire Bouchereau and Jennifer Pochon are leading a great battle in the women’s race. Patrick Bot, Luc Nadal, Maxime Rousseaux and Pierre Laouenan, winner of the Spi and the GPEN, should play the front positions. This fourth round will probably bring its share of upheavals.
