Tour de France a la Voile - Windy, shifty day for the fleet

by www.sail-world.com / ASO on 23 Jul 2012 The Tour de France a la Voile was today described by Cotes d’Amor Bretagne skipper, Josselin Le Moine, as a tactician’s day. 'We had to be on it all the time… The wind went five knots up or down in some places.'

The race committee started three races in 12 to 20 knots of the so-called ‘tramontane’, a local north wind. Since it came from the Languedoc shore, it was quite variable and gave much to think about to the 14 teams.

The first start was at at 11am. TPM Coych, leader overall, and Courrier Dunkerque 3, second overall, led all the way until they started controlling each other, losing ground on the rest of the fleet. The winner of yesterday’s offshore Île de France also won this technical race, followed by the young amateurs of Côtes d’Armor Bretagne and Nantes Saint Nazaire – E. Leclerc. Courrier Dunkerque 3 was fifth and TPM Coych sixth – with one point now separating them.

The second race was the southern and northern teams’ race. They fought all the way to the finish line in a building breeze. TPM won, the northern guys are second – two points again separate them overall. Île de France completed the podium.

The wind reached 27 knots for the third race. Chinese gybes, tangled spinnakers, boat speeds downwind in the 20s: the show was action filled. TPM won again in front of Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention and BAE Systems. Courrier Dunkerque 3 was fifth and lost points to Fabien Henry’s team, now seven points ahead of them overall!

Seven points and there are only three racing days left. There is one more technical race to start tomorrow at 10am. Then, the final offshore leg to La Seyne sur Mer will leave Gruissan in the evening. Lighter airs are forecast and there is a tense feeling about that coefficient three leg. Now is time for the crews and their tacticians to rest.

Rodrigue Cabaz– helmsman, Martinique Mediabat (4, 6, 6): 'It’s a good day – we could have done better but we cannot complain. We kind of reached our objective to be the first amateur boat. We’ve been the first amateurs for most of the races today expect for Ville de Genève, who really is above us.

'We’ve got some new crew for the South part of the Tour but the decision making part of the team didn’t change. We are better at communicating onboard now. I felt good when steering today, with Mathieu calling the tactics. We found a good balance between what he wanted and what I felt.'

Alexis Littoz – tactician, Île de France (1, 3, 4): 'It’s great to see that at the end of a tour, we still have the energy to sail good legs like this. Reading the racecourse today was crucial. It was nice and windy – the wind came from the shore and changed a lot in strength and direction.

'I had a plan in my mind, it worked and we followed it all day. Tomorrow though, there won’t be the ‘tramontane’ anymore and the conditions will be totally different. It will be longer and slower. No idea what’s the menu gonna be!'

Christian Ponthieu – main sail trimmer, Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite: 'It was a catastrophic day, we did everything the wrong way around. We weren’t very inspired for our starts, our tactic and strategy. We struggled to trim the boat and we also did some manoeuvres mistakes. We did a Chinese gybe… We just need to straighten things a bit – everyone has bad days! We just need to go past Event website