Moriceau Leads J/80 Grand Prix de l’Ecole Navale!

(Brest, France)- One of the premiere events of the French one-design sailing season has long been the famous Grand Prix de l’Ecole Navale hosted by the French Naval Sailing College in Brest, France. Popular since its inception, the GPEN is organized by the Association de soutien au Grand Prix de l’École Navale, with the support of the École Navale and the French Navy. 

Thirty-one of the leading J/80 teams from across France participated in this year’s GPEN. The racing was close for the top of the leaderboard between two of the veteran teams in the French J/80 circuit. In the end, it was Simon Moriceau’s ARMEN HABITAT- PL YACHTING team that took the top honors; his crew included Hugo Abeguile, Julien Augereau, Damien Fleury, Xavier Haize, and Lucas Rual. 

Moriceau explained, “It was a race to the end with my good friend- Luc Nadal. We were tied this morning. But, we were able to take advantage of great opportunities today. It’s been a long time since we won here! It is nice because we are all from the same club- the APCC Nantes.”

Having campaigned J/80s for over twenty years, second-place finisher Luc Nadal is considered one of the most experienced veterans in the class. His crew on GAN’JA consisted of a mostly family crew, including Maureen Nadal, David Nadal, and friend Pierre Mousselon. Third went to another J/80 Class veteran- Patric Bot and his crew on SIRIUS ECOLE NAVALE LOCA PONTON- Nedeleg Bigi, Gwenk’hlan Catherine, and Frederic Hauville. Rounding out the top five was Jean Baptiste Bernard’s TELESTO EN21 in fourth and Nicolas Richard’s CNST CAST GRAND OUEST ETIQUETTES in fifth position. Sailing photo credits- Pierrick Contin.  Follow GPEN on Facebook here  For more Grand Prix de l’Ecole Navale sailing information