Tour de France a la Voile - Courrier Dunkerque 8 points ahead

by Fabienne Morin on 25 Jul 2014 Now three days before the end of the Tour de France à la Voile, Daniel Souben’s obsession is to prevent Franck Cammas and his crew from collecting more points and to get further from them. Courrier Dunkerque reached his objective today as the two rivals are still seven points apart on the leaderboard, like yesterday.

Courrier Dunkerque finished three boats ahead of Groupama in race one today and Groupama finished three boats ahead of Dunkerque in race 2. Tie.

In the battle for third place, Team Oman Sail lost a few more points and are watching their chances of a podium flying away. Sidney Gavignet and his team are now 13 points behind Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite. Mathematically, they can still close the gap, but Nicolas Troussel and his crew have found their marks with their new crew and and are making less mistakes on the race course.

While the two race leaders are fighting for victory, the Corinthian teams are more and more visible at the forefront of the fleet. Nantes St Nazaire won the first inshore race, his second victory since the beginning of the event. And Normandy Acerel won the other race. The crew of Baptiste Choquenet has been boosted by the arrival of Figaro sailor Alexis Loison and match-racer Cédric Château onboard. The ‘Normands’ also finished second in the first race and with these two excellent results, they are now only two points from the pro team Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions.

The last offshore leg of the event will be a 100 mile course to Nice with a scoring coefficient 3. The fleet will leave Hyères at 8.30pm.

Daniel Souben, skipper of Courrier Dunkerque: In the second race, we were in front of Groupama but we made a mistake in our positioning in the first downwind leg. Then the wind dropped, the fleet gathered together and it was tight at the bottom mark. There is a few protests going on so we will see the results later on this afternoon
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The offshore leg to Nice tonight will be tricky because we can’t read the wind too far. We will have to control our rival. But we could also be 100% confident in our tactical option and not worry about the other boats. We have to assess the pros and cons. If it works, it could be the Jackpot, but if it doesn’t we would have to limit the damage. So the key is to find the right compromise. The other key point will be to manage our level of tiredness, because if we finish in Nice in the middle of the day when it’s really hot, it could end up being really difficult for everyone. We just have to do some crew rotations during the night and have a proper rest.

Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 34: In the second race, we started a match-race with Dunkerque almost right from the start, without looking at the rest of the fleet so we were a bit behind, but we managed to pass them and to finish third, which is still a good result. The leaderboard will remain unknown until the end. Well, I hope so. We have to keep putting the pressure on Courrier Dunkerque so that they don’t increase their lead. The next leg will be sailed at night with light winds, so it will be a bit unpredictable and we will have to be very watchful.

Following the protest, the race jury has disqualified Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite in the second race for a question of starboard priority at the downwind mark. As a result, Courrier Dunkerque is now eightpoints ahead of Groupama, and Team Oman Sail is six points behind Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite (instead of 13 !)

For more details, visit the website to read the Jury’s decision.

Overall ranking:
1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 894 pts
2 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 886 pts
3 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite, skipper Nicolas Troussel 841 pts
4 Team OmanSail, skipper, Sidney Gavignet 835 pts
5 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, Nicolas Groux 780 pts
6 Normandy – Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 778 pts
7 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 749 pts
8 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 746 pts
9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Olivier Besire 668 pts

Offshore leg ranking:
1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 366 pts
2 Bretagne – Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel 350 pts
3 Team Oman Sail, Sidney Gavignet, 340 pts (…)

Technical ranking:
1 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 546 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 527 pts
3 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite 497 pts (…)

Amateur ranking:
1 Normandy - Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 778 pts
2 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 749 pts
3 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 746 pts
4 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Olivier Besire 668 pts