National ETF26 2021, discovery of the U-Turn 
3 days of racing during the Grand Pavois La Rochelle – Salon nautique International à flot, autumn conditions, light to medium wind and progress on the water!
Of course, we are still last 6th… Well ok… But ! We are now very close to the penultimate ones hehe 
On Friday, while we were in the race, we broke a piece of foil retainer which made us miss 2 races while we repaired. We come back just in time for the next race, reassembled and with the desire to catch up. Very good start and then… The U-Turn of death. I explain you in a simple and poetic way:
Arriving at the leeward buoy at more than 20 knots.
Take the port buoy, we absolutely want.
Starboard tack, hanging on to the straps, our future is uncertain we know it.
Our helmsman imposes us a “U-Turn”, a complicated maneuver.
The U-turn which consists in gybing, rolling up the buoy and luffing up in a row.
To do this well, in a flying boat, we say to ourselves that we should not hesitate.
Before gybing, Yvan Bourgnon tells us “ready to gybe?
Our team member in charge of the foils, Paul, answers “No no no! The father doesn’t care,
Babidibabidibou, the bar is pushed in the corner by Boubou.
Paul is not ready, he just had to be, ejected by the centrifugal force, he is not with us anymore.
The gybe started, the boat continues to turn,
The buoy passes under the rudder and the boat is on its side.
You can find the video of the capsize on this link. Filmed in full. We can see Paul sliding…
https://youtu.be/JSfSId3-rK8?t=26Then, we put the boat straight and there PAF! 3rd in front of Kinou and Team Pro!
We see that it pays to not give up anything. We enjoy ourselves, we are in the game and we can now pretend not to be last. 2 races with Hubert Savatier on the 3rd boat proves it. We are regularly fighting against the Danes of Cool Runing Team who are 5th, 5 small points ahead of us.
Interesting phases and good starts, we are often 3 or 4 at the first passage to the leeward gate, so it’s encouraging, we still have to be regular and faster in the light airs. We still had some breakage, which cost us a lot of points, that’s part of the game. Without the breakage and with a steady wind, we are good.
The next event: the Spi Ouest-France – Banque Populaire Grand Ouest this weekend at home in La La Trinité sur Mer. Don’t hesitate to come and say hello 
Many thanks to Antoine Iché for the help!
