Les Voiles de Saint Tropez - An autumn in Pampelonne

by Les Voiles de St Tropez on 4 Oct 2014 Les Voiles de Saint Tropez 2014, 27th September – 5th October. It is a forgotten place in winter, where the morning sun beats down silvery rays over the crowds in search of a little coolness by the beaches. It’s a site where boats of all sizes and types rule supreme over this October weekend, the futuristic and classic sails monopolising everyone’s gaze.

Saint Tropez, its bay and its beaches, extend the summer festivity, as much on shore as on the water, where no fewer than 4,000 sailors once again got together today, on the orders of their respective race committees, to lap up the racing on offer in the breeze. It may only be a zephyr in this the tail end of the week, but still the sun is shining. And so it was that some 120 Classic yachts set sail from midday, bound for a large triangle at the edge of the bay, whilst the Modern yachts headed off to tease the choppy conditions offshore of Pampelonne. With the exception of the large Wallys and J Classes, victims of a capricious wind, which put paid to any form of stability, all the Modern and Classic groups were able to compete in another hotly contested race that got the grey matter turning.

The Modern and Classic yachts validate a race

Back in the day of the Nioulargue, one can imagine the reaction of Eric Tabarly, the father of Les Voiles: 'I’d have never imagined that one day I’d see in the flesh what I discovered in books…' And yet this is exactly what visitors get to see each year as they mass around the breakwaters or the various vantage points of the Vieux Port. The spectacle of no fewer than 120 classic yachts racing around the bay became a reality at midday, the little gaffers leading the way in a light westerly wind. A small, very short chop complicated the trimming for a brief moment before each group got out their entire sail wardrobe and made for the outside of the bay on a course, which had once again been cleverly studied to give each tactician, each crew, the opportunity to show-off their skills whatever the point of sail. Setting off slightly later in the early afternoon and following a course reduction at the entrance to the bay, the five IRC groups still managed to blend their modern rigs with those of the traditional yachts for a fabulous ‘bottleneck of styles’ below Event website