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Nélias wins Fécamp

Belgacom dominated the first day's racing

FÉCAMP, France -- Strong winds led to the cancellation of the final day of the Grand Prix de Fécamp, leaving Jean Luc Nélias the overall winner.

Nélias seems to finally have overcome the disappointment of a dismasting which put him out of the first two grand prix of the season in his new Peteghem/Prevost-designed ORMA 60 trimaran.

He is a strong contender for the all-important singlehanded Route du Rhum transatlantic race beginning on November 10.

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Nélias dominated the first day at Fécamp on Friday winning both races and took his third win of the grand prix on the first race on Saturday.

Saturday's second race was won by Fred Le Peutrec on his new Nigel Irens-designed Bayer en France.

Overall ORMA circuit leader Loic Peyron in the Irens-designed Fujicolor finally regained his form on the final 40 mile coastal race in a 15 to 25 knot breeze that had the yachts sailing at speeds of up to 35 knots.

The win was enough to maintain Peyron's position at the head of the grand prix circuit and establish him in pole position for the Route du Rhum when the skippers of the 18.2m (60ft) catamarans discard their crew to across the Atlantic single-handed.

There were varying fortunes for the rest of the trimarans at the Fécamp Grand Prix. One of the favourites, Franck Cammas's Groupama, dismasted on practice day.

Foncia (Alain Gautier) and Geant (Michel Desjoyeaux) are still sorting out their replacement masts while Banque Populaire (Loulou Roucayrol) is still having major structural repairs.

Grand Prix de Fecamp results

1- Jean-Luc Nélias (Belgacom) 1+1+1+2+2 = 7 points

2- Loïck Peyron (Fujifilm) 2+2+6+4+1 = 15 points

3- Frédéric Le Peutrec (Bayer CropScience) 5+8 (DNF)+2+1+3 = 19 points

4- Marc Guillemot (Biscuits La Trinitaine-Ethypharm) 3+3+3+5+8 (DNS) = 22

points

5- Karine Fauconnier (Sergio Tacchini) 4+3+4+7+4 = 22 points

6- Philippe Monnet (Sopra Group) 6+5+5+3+5 = 24 points

7- Bertrand de Broc (Banque Covefi) 7+6+8 (DNF)+6+6 = 33 points

Current overall results after four 9 Telecom ORMA Grand Prix

1 Fujifilm (Loïck Peyron) 6+30+10+6 = 52 points

2 Bonduelle (Jean Le Cam) 3+18+0,2 = 21,2 points

3 Groupama (Franck Cammas) 10+0,3+6 = 16,3 points

4 Belgacom (Jean-Luc Nélias) 0+0,3+4+10= 14,3 points

5 Banque Covefi (Bertrand de Broc) 0,2+12+0,2+0,2= 12,6 points

6 Biscuits La Trinitaine-Ethypharm (Marc Guillemot) 4+0,3+0+3= 7,3 points

7 Bayer CropScience (Fred Le Peutrec) 0,2+0,3+0+4= 4,5 points

8 Foncia (Alain Gautier) 1+0,3+3 = 4,3 points

9 Sopra Group (Philippe Monnet) 0,2+0,3+2+1 = 3,5 points

10= Banque Populaire (Lalou Roucayrol) 2+0+0 = 2 points

10= Sergio Tacchini (Karine Fauconnier) 2 point2-

12= Gitana X (Lionel Lemonchois)

12= Sodébo (Thomas Coville)

12= Géant (Michel Desjoyeaux)