Tour de France a la Voile - Full-on day on the water in Gruissan

by Tour de France a la Voile on 21 Jul 2014 In the Tour de France a la Voile, the M34 fleet has three inshore races on, and with a wind blowing up to 30 knots, there was plenty of action on the race course, with some acrobatic, and even chaotic, boat handling. The top teams performed well, with a win for Groupama 34 and another one for Courrier Dunkerque 3, but after 16 days of racing in this edition, the Corinthian teams are also improving. Nantes Saint Nazaire won the third race, and the young crew of TPM Coych finished two races in third place.

The fleet offered a fantastic show on the water today. The local north-westerly wind, la Tramontane, was strong and unsettled and blew from 15 to 30 knots.

Groupama 34 won the first inshore race in front of Courrier Dunkerque 3 and Team Oman Sail. And at the beginning of the second race, Franck Cammas was in the lead again, but neck and neck with Daniel Souben. And in the last downwind leg, Courrier Dunkerque made a better gybe on a more direct course to the finish and crossed the line in first.

The third race was decisive for the two rivals, but it also ended up reshuffling the leaderboard for the other competitors. Courrier Dunkerque managed to control the green boat all around the course. They didn’t have the expected result (5th), but they finished ahead of Groupama which is the most important for the overall ranking, seven days before the end of the Tour.

Team Oman Sail had a great start on this race, doing the first turn in second, but when they dropped the spinnaker the haylyard got stuck and the Omani boat ended up at the back of the fleet. Cédric Pouligny finished the race in eighth, six boats behind Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite, which cost him his third place on the leaderboard. A disapointing day for the Omani crew, who is now four points behind Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite.

The good surprise came from the Corinthian teams today. Toulon Provence Mediterranée COYCH finished the second and third races in third position. The young crew skippered by Florian Simmonot didn’t perform well in the offshore races on the Atlantic side, but now they are back in their home waters, they are showing great potential.

Nantes Saint-Nazaire won their first race of the event today in Gruissan. The crew of Jean-Baptiste Gellée now has Figaro sailor Gildas Mahé onboard for the Mediterranean and it seems to work well. They also finished fourth in the first race.

The offshore leg from Gruissan to Hyères (140 miles) is set to be a turning point in this event. With a coefficient four and a weather forecast predicting very strong wind, it could reshuffle the cards. The M34 will leave the port at 9.30 for a start at 10.30.

Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 34: 'We can’t really say it’s been a good day. We sailed well on the race course, but we missed a few nice opportunities to win. We won one, but at the end of the day we are losing one point over our main rivals. And it’s a shame because at this stage of the event, every single point is precious. Tomorrow will be a classic offshore leg. It will be very windy downwind, so we will have to prepare well. I hope the wheel of fortune is going to turn in our favour.'

Nicolas Troussel, skipper of Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite: 'It was a busy day, with unsettled conditions and a wind blowing from 15 to 27 knots. It was pretty full-on onboard. We are very happy to have taken third place overall from Oman Sail. It’s a great motivation for the week to come. In the third race, the wind was shifty and we realised at the winward mark that the game was still very open and that anything could happen, so we remained focused, we made the right tacks upwind and we crossed the finish line in second.'

Pierre-Antoine Morvan, helmsman onboard Courrier Dunkerque: 'We are gaining one point over Groupama, so if we keep going that way, we will win the Tour. In the last leg, we could have finished second and Groupama sixth because we started really well, but just before the end, we made a big mistake and three boats passed us, so we are losing three points foolishly, even though we finished ahead of Groupama.'

Antoine Bézile, helmsman onboard TPM – COYCH: 'We left this morning with a wind going from 18 to 25 knots. It was strong and unsettled. In the second race, we had a great boat speed, and we did well in our boat handling and tactics, so we finished third. In the last race, we decided to keep our medium genoa, while the others kept the heavy genoa. We also made good tactical choices and we finished third again. It’s a fantastic result for us. Tomorrow we will have the same crew onboard for the offshore leg to Hyères. We are very motivated and our objective is to pass Normandy – Acerel Event website