Thanks to Vianney Vautier for this report: Sixteen J/70s were racing in the beautiful location of Hendaye for the French Nationals. The regatta, hosted by the Yacht Club D’Hendaye (YCH), was a first for the French fleet. Among the competitors were 13 French crews, three Spanish boats and one Italian. For the records, we will remember that the French were polite enough to let the three podium spots to the foreign crew. Overall winner was Carlo Alberini and the team on Calvi Network, who sailed a perfect regatta with an impressive scoreline of 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 7, showing great speed and efficient tactics. Second was Iker Almandoz, sailing on Gold Sailing, who did get better and better as the regatta was going (6, 4, 3, 5, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3). Third was Gerard Marin Julia on Nautic Escala 2, who also had a difficult start on the first day but did get up to speed to finish strong. First French team and fourth overall was Quentin Ponroy, sailing on TBS – SN la Trinité sur mer. The top team, full of figaro sailors and big multi skills, did not have enough consistency to match their foreign competitors. The competition was also fierce among the other competitors, where the final rankings were not decided before the final race. On the race course, teams enjoyed warm weather and light and shifty wind, not making life easy for the tacticians and the race committee, who did a great job to have 10 races held in perfect conditions. Competitors left Hendaye with big smiles on their faces, most of them discovering Hendaye and it was definitely a beautiful find!