Bradleys Managing Director Skippers Team to Top Award

- Mon 21 Jul 2014

Bradleys Managing Director, Francis Marshall braved the conditions to sail over to France on 7th July departing at 3am to take part in The Half Ton Classics Cup 2014. The week saw differing conditions but came to a dramatic conclusion off the beautiful North Brittany coast and a delightful prize giving on the waterfront of Saint-Quay-Portreiux.

With the breeze a little lighter at around 10-14 knots on the final day there were some different faces at the front of the pack and the finish was incredibly close. Robert Tregear's Per Elisa (1989 Ceccarelli), the last one off half tonner ever built, came into her own and gave Swuzzlebubble a run for her money, although they couldn't quite save their time and Swuzzlebubble won by 23 seconds. Third place went to Frederic Waniart's diminutive Maeva (1974 Mauric) who beat General Tapioca for third by a mere 0.16 seconds!

Our overall winner, Peter Morton's Swuzzlebubble (1978 Farr), had already been confirmed, but still came out to race purely for the joy of it. The remaining podium positions were confirmed as Bernard Fournier Le Ray's Brittany Drizzle (1978 Berret) evaded one final challenge from her sister ship General Tapioca, owned by Philippe Pilate, to claim second place with General Tapioca taking the third step on the podium.

At the prize giving each of the skippers was invited to the podium to receive an invitation to the 2015 Half Ton Classics Cup, which will be held in in Nieuwpoort, Belgium, from 17-23 August, and to say a few words about the regatta. They were universal in their praise of the Sport Nautique Saint-Quay-Portrieux for their organisation of the regatta, of the Half Ton Classics Class for their work behind the scenes, and of their crews and fellow competitors for the incredible competition, fun and camaraderie they have experienced this week.

And finally we came to the most important presentation of all, The Half Ton Spirit Trophy, which is awarded to the team, which, in the opinion of the Class and the Regatta Committee, truly embodies the extraordinary spirit of the class and the event. For their commitment and incredible personal hard work in keeping their beautiful boat in 100% as original condition, for sailing with great success with an entirely Corinthian crew and for racing her, runners, checkstays, titanium fittings and all, to an incredible ninth place overall, the 2014 Half Ton Spirit Trophy was awarded to deafening applause to Concorde (1989 Andrieu) owned by Francis Marshall and crewed by Robert Libby, Matt and Ivan Jacock, Peter Greenwood, Dick Jackman and Jack Spree - a bunch of Enterprise sailors and fishermen from Looe in Cornwall. A very moved Francis and his entire team came to the podium to accept the trophy and the recognition of their fellow sailors.

Francis Marshall - Bradleys Managing Director

Francis Marshall
Bradleys Managing Director