A great battle of ratings at the 2025 French National Sport Keelboat Championship in Morgat!

The Flying Fifteen have been taking part in the Grand Prix de l'Ecole Navale for several years now, it’s where we had our French Nationals from 2017 to 2023, and our Europeans last year. In 2025, for the first time, instead of racing as a one-design class, we were racing in Intersérie Quillards de Sport (INQ). This is the result of a discussion between the Tempest class and ours: together we submitted the project to FFVoile, and they approved it.

22 keelboats did gather to Morgat: Flying Fifteen, Tempest, Aile, Open 5.00, Vent d'Ouest. A crowded start line, and all the other classes with much more upwind sail than us: Tempest 23m², Aile 22m², Open 5.00 20m². With our 14m². It was kind of hard not to get caught in their bad air! A good practical lesson in the techniques for creating your hole on the line. After the start, however, the upwind performance of the Flying Fifteen made up for this handicap. In real time, the Tempests got the upper hand as soon as they could use their trapeze, but we were perfectly able to compete in compensated time. This confirmed the full page headline of the Télégramme: ‘The Flying Fifteen are going to put on a show in Morgat Bay’! (Copy attached in Gallery)

Fine weather and a high-pressure configuration, with a rather capricious wind: steady medium on Thursday (3 races sailed), thermal breeze the next day, long awaited but rather strong finally  (1 race only), and on Saturday, 2 races sailed in a slightly erratic medium - after one cancellation, one general recall and one black flag start.

In the overall ranking, 3 of the Tempests managed to finish ahead of all others, not a surprise as they have been among the top performers in their class last World Championship. Well done Agnès and Patrice Rouanet (CN Saint-Raphaël), INQ 2025 French Champions. Our Flying 15s came 4th (Michel Pélegrin - Erwan Gouriou, YCD), 6th (J-Yves Renault - Antoine Cojan, YCD), 9th (J-François Poirier - François Chevet, YCD), 13th (Arno Solazzo - Claire Mortreuil, YCP Fontainebleau) and 15th (Alain Kinard - Bernard Vandersteen, Belgium) respectively.

All in all, a fine Ascension weekend, a warm welcome from everybody in Morgat and a great availability from the many volunteers and Olivier Latin, head of  the Centre Nautique de Crozon Morgat. We’re all looking forward to next year's edition.

And next year, our objective will be to gather 10 Flying Fifteens. The Tempests already hope to be 7 or 8, we have to keep up with them (and hopefully have a Fifteen become National INQ Champion!). So the plan is to re-launch the Europa Cup in Dinard, taking place the weekend just before the Ascension Thursday. This will attract more boats from Belgium and Ile-de-France. Dinard is a marvellous setting and stretch of water, without much current during neap tides, which will be the case.

We very much hope that several British crews join in the fun (even though we know they're likely to beat us to the punch), so we're already inviting Flying Fifteeners from the other side of the Channel to cross it and race with us in these two special events. See you next year! And a link to a few videos on Youtube: GPEN 2025 - Les régates s'enchaînent à Crozon-Morgat

Michel Pélegrin d’Almeïda, president of Flying Fifteen France

Results attached to this article below.

NB: If you wish to actually read the newspaper report we suggest downloading it as it may not display in the correct orientation.