Tour de France a la Voile - Two wins for Groupama 34

by Fabienne Morin on 19 Jul 2014 In the Tour de France a la Voile, Franck Cammas is back onboard Groupama 34, and for his first day of racing in the Mediterranean he led his team to win two inshore races. Courrier Dunkerque 3 finished the day with a third and a fourth and is not under pressure.

The day started with gentle sailing conditions in the bay of Roses. The M34 were competing in a ‘midlogue’ with less than 10 knots easterly breeze this morning. Courrier Dunkerque 3 won it but the result did not count for the ranking.

As the Garbi local sea breeze was building up throughout the day, Groupama 34 led the fleet around the race course. Winner of the last Volvo Ocean Race Franck Cammas was back onboard and as the second part of the event started in the Mediterranean, he laid his cards on the table. Overall Courrier Dunkerque 3 still has a 14 point lead, but Daniel Souben is now under pressure.

Team Oman Sail is still third overall with the same points difference over Bretagne – Crédit Mutuel Elite. Both teams finished the day with a second and a fifth place.

The Corinthian team Nantes – Saint Nazaire performed really well and made a good impression today in Roses, with a fourth and a sixth place. They now have Figaro sailor Gildas Mahé onboard, which probably gave the team extra confidence. Despite the strong sea breeze (up to 25 knots), two other Corinthian teams, Normandy-Acerel and Toulon Provence Méditerranée – COYCH, also rounded a few marks amongst the top boats.

Tomorrow, the M34 will leave Roses for an offshore leg to Gruissan in France. Start at 8am. It should be a speed race as the boat will be sailing downwind on most of the course.

Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 34: 'It was a great day. The racing was tight but we won both races. I think in those conditions we can make a difference on little things like boat handling and mark roundings, especially downwind. We gained a few points overall, but we could just as well lose some, so we’ll have to keep working hard to pass Courrier Dunkerque on the leaderboard. We just have to do it step by step.'

Christopher Pratt, régleur de grand-voile de Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite: 'We crossed the start line early so we had to do a penalty turn, but we managed to catch up the front of the fleet and we nearly finished fourth, so it was a positive result in terms of boat speed and tactics. In the second race, we took a good start and we were first at the upwind mark but we made a mistake when we hoisted the spinnaker and we lost a few places. In the end, it was a positive day. We are not losing points and that’s the post important. We have two new crew members onboard, Corentin Horeau at the helm and Charlie Dalin, and both of them finished on the podium of the last Solitaire du Figaro, so that brings some confidence, some energy and maybe a bit of luck.'

Erwan Le Roux, tacticien de Courrier Dunkerque 3: 'The sailing conditions were perfect and we enjoyed it but our results are not good enough. We lost some five points overall. Groupama 34 sailed well, they had good starts and were always on the good side of the race course. From a tactical point of view it was a bit tricky as the wind was shifting to the right throughout the day at the bottom of the race course, it was shifting left with the hills influence. In Granville we also had a 14 point lead in the ranking so we are not too worried about it.'

Nasser Al Mashari, spinnaker trimmer onboard OmanSail: 'We had about 20 knots on the race course, so it was pretty tough but we had good boat handling and good starts on both races. We are happy with our day but it was the first one in the Mediterranean so now we just have to wait for tomorrow and the day after. We didn’t have Sidney onboard but we had sailed with Cédric before so it was nice to race with him today. Tomorrow for the offshore leg to Gruissan both of them will be onboard, Sidney at the tactics and Cédric at the helm.'

Alexis Loison, tacticien de Normandy Acerel: 'We’ve changed most of our crew for the Med and it was our few time together. We didn’t perform very well today but we have identified our mistakes and our weaknesses. We had a good boat speed but we didn’t have good starts, so we know what to work on for the next stage.'

Overall ranking:
1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 619 pts
2 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 605 pts
3 Team OmanSail, skipper, Sidney Gavignet 583 pts
4 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite, skipper Nicolas Troussel 578pts
5 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, Nicolas Groux 548 pts
6 Normandy – Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 524 pts
7 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 511 pts
8 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 490 pts
9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 453pts

Offshore leg ranking:
Technical ranking :
1 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 335 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 326 pts
3 Team Oman Sail, Sidney Gavignet 309 pts (…)

Amateur ranking:
1 Normandy - Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 524 pts
2 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 511 pts
3 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 490 pts
4 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 453 pts Event website