The world famous 24 hour endurance race was plagued by wet and windy weather with waves in excess of 3 feet making Rouen 2007 reportedly one of the roughest races ever. Sixteen of the 45 entries sunk, capsized or received some damage within the first 2 hours.
The UK team compromising of Jan Falkowski, John Puddifoot, Dave Field and John Masters achieved a very strong 14th place in their class, a fantastic result for their debut race.
John Puddifoot said “To finish the race was a feat of some considerable achievement particularly as both boats were part of the brand new RYA SL90 circuit development project. We finished just outside the top ten in class and were delighted with the result”.
He went on to say, “Throughout the race the Icom communications systems worked faultlessly and proved to be particularly valuable during the difficult moments in the race. Our team managers were immediately able to communicate with the drivers following the incidents and to confirm that they were OK and also to establish the nature of the damage to the boats so that our repair teams could be ready to start work immediately the boats arrived back in the pits”.
He went on to say “The RYA would like to thank Icom for their valuable support in this project and it is our intention to take the boats to Poland in July for the second round of the World endurance championships”.