IJSBA has received this email from the champ himself- Cyrille Lemoine, the French born and American residing multi time winner has reached out to tell us about his overall win from the 2017 Longbeach to Catalina event:
Hello everyone:
This weekend of July 9 I participated in a mythical race in the United States, the Lb2Cat which means Long Beach to Catalina. This race is the American Single Rider Offshore Championship.
It is an offshore race of about 120kms with a departure from Long Beach to Catalina Island which is 60kms off Los Angeles and back to Long Beach.
The jets are equipped with additional tanks because the autonomy is insufficient and it is of course forbidden to refuel at sea. I decided to take part in this race with my Yamaha GP 1800, a 2-seater jet that is normally more suited to slalom races than for offshore races. I am also the only one on a two-passenger jet all the other competitors are with 3 places.
Sunday morning the ocean is slightly agitated with a big swell. Those are the kinds of conditions that I prefer. The start is at 9:30 and from the first kilometer I find myself in the lead, I feel super comfortable in this type of waves and after about 10 Minutes of racing I turn to see how I was compared to others And here, surprise: I see them all more than a kilometer behind! I still decide to go faster than i can to the island.
Arrived at the boat pointing in front of the port of Catalina second surprise when I turn around: nobody at sight! I was more than 2 minutes ahead of the second ...
I leave in the direction of Long Beach and there, a little worry with my GPS that tells me the direction of the boat that I had just passed! I had to stop to cancel the point and hand the one of the arrival. I leave and this time no arrow lol! I forgot to validate the point. So 2nd stop and this time I validate and everything is ok I leave on Long Beach. With these 2 stops I saw one of my competitors off behind me.
So I made the return by ensuring a maximum not to fall and also save the machine.
Everything went well I finished with about 30 seconds ahead of the second (Canada) and several Minutes on the 3rd (Australia)
I am really happy to go up on the highest step of the podium especially on a race like this one!
My GP 1800 prepared by Riva to show that we could combine performance and reliability !!!
Thank you all for your support from near or far;)
Sportily,
Cyrille Lemoine
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