Backès and Jarlegan European F18 champion
Posted on 14 December 2011
Arnaud Jarlegan (Energy Team) and Olivier Backès have pulled off a major victory by winning the title of F18 European Champions, just over a year after winning the World Championship title.
It looked like it was going to be a very challenging week in the Canaries. The pair turned up there on 1st December with a new boat and new sails. Five days of training enabled them to set up their boat and achieve good speeds to allow them to compete with the top competitors in the field. After a tricky start to the championship in light winds and a heavy swell, they really stood out on the final day finishing 3rd, 2nd and 1st in the three final races. They were therefore able to win this hotly contested European Championship. Adding the European title to their list of successes was a huge challenge. Arnaud Jarlegan: “I’m very pleased, as this was a technically difficult challenge. Today we have a boat that is solid in all types of conditions. As for the races, Olivier and I built up this success gradually. The final day was quite exceptional and gives us confidence for the future. 2011 was a very important year for me, as I have been involved in the Energy Team project for the America's Cup on the AC45. The whole team has been through some extraordinary times. I really hope to keep at it in 2012 on these multihulls, which represent the future of sailing.”
Olivier Backes: “This is a magnificent victory, as all our competitors were on top form after the 2011 season, which has just finished, while we only trained for twelve days together and had to set up our new boat. At the start of the Championship, it was a bit tricky settling in with a few mistakes in the first races and only average speeds. But after that, it all started to fall into place and become automatic, and our speed improved considerably, which meant that we were able to achieve a perfect performance on the final day.”
The General Manager of Energy Team, Bruno Peyron was keen to congratulate Arnaud and Olivier: "Well done Olivier and Arnaud! This was an impressive performance after just a week of training on a completely new boat and just a year after their World championship title. Olivier wasn’t able to join us in 2011 because of a busy professional schedule. We hope that in 2012 he will be able to join the Energy Team group following on from this success.”