Tour de France a la Voile - Teams prepare for Mediterranean racing

by Fabienne Morin on 18 Jul 2014 The Tour de France a la Voile teams are getting ready for their first day of racing in the Mediterranean tomorrow. This afternoon, some of them went out training in the bay of Roses in a solid 15-20 knots sea breeze.

Crew members and shore crew had a busy morning setting up the rigging, checking the sheets and haylyards, greasing the winches, etc. The M34 have to be ready for the big day tomorrow. They will be sailing a midlogue in the morning (no scoring), and two inshore races in the afternoon. The sea breeze should build up throughout the day, to reach 20 knots in the afternoon and please the crew with perfect sailing conditions.

Some of them already had a taste of it this afternoon. Upwind and downwind sailing, tacking and gybing… They have tested their crew work and boat speed. And it was the opportunity for the new crew members who will steop onboard for the second part of the event, to find their marks.

With new weather conditions, new sailing playgrounds and The Mediterranean is a bit like a second start for the race.

The Race Village opened this morning in Roses and thousands of visitors have already been walking along to have a go at all the activities and to find out more about the boats, the teams and the event. Tomorrow, the inshore races will be covered live on the main stage from 1.30 to 5.30pm.

Sidney Gavignet, skipper de Team Oman Sail 'It’s always been the plan to do some crew changes in the Med. And considering how tired everybody is, it’s a great choice! Since the beginning of the Tour, we’ve only had a proper rest in Roscoff. This event is full on. I will only be onboard for the offshore races so that I can rest in the meantime and prepare them the best way possible. A tired skipper is necessarily a bad skipper. Sure it’s only a bit stressful to not be onboard when you are the skipper but I have a total faith in last year’s skipper Cédric Pouligny. We also have Cédric Bérenger as a mainsail trimmer and match-racer Damien Iehl at the helm. It was very important for us to go out sailing today so that Cédric can take his marks'

Nils Palmieri, Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions: 'The priority was to check everything was ok with the boat. It was also an opportunity to take our cook out sailing as it is her first Tour de France à la Voile. It was nice for her to discover the boat and learn more about the food obligations when you are sailing. We went quite a long way out to check out the conditions and anticipate over the next offshore race to Gruissan. We have to take the hills into consideration. We also took three new crew members out and we’ve prepared for the racing tomorrow.'

Damien Iehl, barreur de Team Oman Sail: 'We’ve set up the rig and the sails. We had 15 knots of wind to start with so it was perfect to set up the mast upwind. We had an extra crew member onboard. We had our two mainsail trimmers, Alexandre Pallu who has been onboard since the start and Guillaume Bérenger, who has just arrived. We’ve also worked on the communication between the helmsman and the mainsail and genoa trimmers. And we’ve reset the instruments so that they are more precise.'

Overall ranking:
1 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 574 pts
2 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 555 pts
3 Team OmanSail, skipper, Sidney Gavignet 538 pts
4 Bretagne - Crédit Mutuel Elite, skipper Nicolas Troussel 533pts
5 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, Nicolas Groux 505 pts
6 Normandy – Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 487 pts
7 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 474 pts
8 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 448 pts
9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 419 pts

Offshore leg ranking:
1 – Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 293 pts
2 – Bretagne – Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel 277 pts
3 – Team Oman Sail, Sidney Gavignet, 274 pts (…)

Technical ranking:
1 Groupama 34, Franck Cammas 285 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque 3, Daniel Souben 281 pts
3 Ville de Genève – Carrefour Addictions, skipper, Nicolas Groux 265 pts (…)

Amateur ranking:
1 Normandy - Acerel, Baptiste Choquenet 487 pts
2 Toulon Provence Méditerranée, Florian Simonnot 474 pts
3 Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Jean-Baptiste Gellée 448 pts
4 Be Brussels Bienne Voile, Delphine Wolters et Yann Burkhalter 419 pts Event website