New formats for the 10th edition of Normandy Sailing Week

Normandy Sailing Week 2014 © Jean-Marie Liot / www.jmliot.com

Created in 2006 in Deauville, Normandy Sailing Week will celebrate its 10th edition in 2015 and in that time it has become one of the major race meets in the English Channel. In this its 6th edition in Le Havre the event is really breaking new ground, shaking things up for the benefit of its competitors.

The first innovation involves the arrival of the new series from the Tour de France à la Voile and the implementation of some new race formats. The Tour de France à la Voile is undergoing a major transformation in 2015 by opting to race a multihull craft for the first time in the form of the 7.5m Diam24 One Design and offering the public much more visible courses hugging the coastline, as well as a series of coastal challenges.

Positioned a few weeks prior to the summer's major sailing meet, Normandy Sailing Week has always played host to the Tour's competitors, who view the event as a very useful warm-up for the teams. And the tradition is very much intact with 4 days of racing on the cards, comprising courses close to the beaches and the local public and coastal challenges around the Baie de Seine (2 challenges from 25 to 50 miles). The obvious success of the new formula (31 entries in the Tour de France) suggests that there will be a far-reaching participation in the Le Havre meet, which forms part of the event schedule for the Diam24 class. Furthermore, the line-up for this new series comprises a host of big names, including Franck Cammas, Thomas Coville, Yann Guichard, Daniel Souben, Sébastien Rogues, Vincent Riou, Lionel Lemonchois, Bernard Stamm and Jérémie Beyou....

A second major format change relates to a 100-mile race that will form part of the event programme
for the cruiser-racers. This long sprint will range from 70 to 110 miles in length, according to the series, and it is scheduled to set sail on Friday evening and run through the night into Saturday morning. Its course will take the fastest series as far as the Iles St Marcouf in the English Channel, whilst the smaller craft will race between Ouistreham and Antifer.

This long race will be accompanied early on Friday and on Sunday morning by courses across the bay and is open to the Osiris-Habitable series and IRC craft. This new, broader format has been created in a bid to reach out to all the different racers around the Baie de Seine, from Courseulles to Dieppe, Deauville and Fécamp.


This event will also play host once again to a stage of the French J80 Cup, which will form a key element of the event programme. The involvement of the Société des Régates du Havre (SRH) in this series and the growing success already observed in 2013, which saw nearly 40 competitors take to the water, bode well for another ambitious J80 clash in Europe's top one-design circuit. The Normandy Channel Race will also be a step on the road to the J80 worlds, which will be held in Kiel, Germany, in early July.

Finally, on the initiative of the Ligue de Voile de Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy Sailing League), each year the Club Trophy for the First Class 7.5 category gathers together all the local clubs, including those from the surrounding inland waterways. Rallying together around twenty crews, the success of this campaign year on year ensures that its popularity is maintained.

Supported by the City of Le Havre, Normandy Sailing Week is organised by the teams from Sirius Evénements and the services provided by the City, the marina and the Sailing League, as well as the clubs (CNPV – SNPH – SRH).

Over a hundred crews are expected from 10 to 14 June 2015 in Le Havre and the Baie de Seine for the event's tenth anniversary, which is synonymous with a new look for the event.

www.normandy-week.com