Tour de France à la Voile - Courrier Dunkerque 3 wins Prologue

by Fabienne Morin on 5 Jul 2014 While the Tour de France a la Voile Race Village was opening its door to the public today, the M34 fleet raced their Prologue. Courrier Dunkerque 3 won in his homeport after a very tight battle against last year’s winner. A taste of what is set to be a captivating competition for the 37th edition of the Tour de France à la Voile.

The nine M34 had a gentle start in a light westerly breeze. Although this Prologue race didn’t count for the overall ranking, the teams were keen to give it a good go, as it was a unique opportunity to measure the level of competition. Last year’s winner Groupama 34 led at the first two marks, but in the second beat, Courrier Dunkerque 3 started a tacking duel with the green boat and pushed it on the layline to roll the mark first and lead to the finish line. The two race favourites have set the pace of the 2014 Tour de France à la Voile.

Normandy – Acerel and Toulon Provence Méditerranée – COYCH were also right in the game. The two young crew finished third and fourth, Normandy – Acerel being the first Corinthian. Sidney Gavignet and his team onboard Oman Air had to do with a fifth place, but according to the french skipper, the most important is to consistently go up the learning curve. The real game will be on tomorrow!

Back on land, the Race Village was opening its doors to the public, and the weather was perfect to enjoy the large amount of activites and entertainment. The Tour de France à la Voile opening ceremony took place at 5pm, just before the screen of the Soccer World Cup quarter finals France- Germany on the main stage of the Village.

Pierre-Antoine Morvan, helmsman onboard Courrier Dunkerque 3: 'We were worried about our boat speed, but the Prologue ended up being a very positive exercise in the end. We’ve changed the mast set-up to gain in performance and we are very happy to finish first. We feel reassured for what’s to come.'

Tugdual Becquemie, helmsman onboard Groupama 34: 'We are quite happy as we had a good boat speed and great sensations. We made two mistakes that allowed Courrier Dunkerque 3 to pass us and the race was so short that we didn’t have the opportunity to catch them up. The game will be tight.'

Benoît Charon, Normandy – Acerel: 'The weather was nice, we had two guests from Krys onboard and we finished third, so we couldn’t be happier! Our new young crews are excellent. I had never sailed with them before and I am not disappointed.'

Sidney Gavignet, skipper of Team Oman Sail: 'Everything went well and everyone did a good job. We are satisfied. We wanted to do as well as our training sessions and that’s what we did. We are on the learning curve and now our goal is to keep going up until the end of this Tour.'

Results of the day:

1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, skipper Daniel Souben, 1 pt
2 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas, 2 pts
3 Normandy - Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet, 3 pts
4 Toulon Provence / Méditerranée - Coych, Florian Simonnot, 4 pts
5 Team OmanSail, Sidney Gavignet, 5 pts
6 Nantes St Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée, 6 pts
7 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel, 7 pts
8 Ville de Genève - Carrefoux Addictions, Nicolas Groux, 8 pts
9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter, 9 Event website