Yann Guichard came in to last season as a real dark horse. His talent in multihulls was unquestioned but his lack of experience in match racing made many people question his abilities.
But after a strong result in the match racing for Team France in the Americas Cup World Series he was awarded a wild card entry to the first event in Fremantle. He did not disappoint his fans when the Spindrift Racing team reached the semifinals on their first try.
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This was followed up by a place in the semis in Copenhagen and Newport and a heart stopping loss in the quarterfinals at the World Championship finals in Marstrand. No one should be surprised to see the skipper, who is flying the “Tricolore” flag of France, return with WMRT Tour card no. 5 for the 2017 season.
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“We are still learning a lot about match racing and about the boat.” Yann Guichard comments from the Spindrift base in Saint-Philibert. This is the place from where the team is building their program for the WMRT 2017 season to try and improve on their fourth-place finish on the overall leaderboard from last season. Here they have a facility with gym, coaching rooms, dry base and a ramp down to great training conditions. After several great match racing teams on the World Match Racing Tour in past years, Spindrift Racing is the only French contender for the current season.
Yann continues, “The team is training with our own M32 outside of our base and we have a program to improve our match racing as well as try and find more speed out of the boat. Maybe we will involve other teams as training partners to further increase the training. Our aim is to try and win. It will be though but I think we can do it.”
WMRT 2017 Tour Card Holder
Name: Yann Guichard
Nationality: French
Team name: Spindrift Racing
Year of birth: 1974
Result WMRT 2016: 4th place
