Régates Royales de Cannes - No wind, no racing

by Event Media on 26 Sep 2009
Régates Royales de Cannes. No wind, no racing. Instead a little Cannes history.

The first sailor from Cannes came from… Paris! The engineer and builder Léopold Bucquet moved to Cannes in an effort to improve his poor health, yet continued to remember with fondness his days racing on the river Seine. This propelled him to start designing his first boat that was then built by a local shipyard owned by Honoré Arluc.

At the beginning of the 19th century Cannes was just a small village dating back to the Middle-ages and essentially populated by fishermen and monks. It’s only around 1830 that it began attracting English and European aristocrats who followed Lord Henry Peter Brougham’s example. Having abandoned politics, this orator, writer and scientist (physics and geometry) chose the French Riviera as his residence. The area soon become the favoured holiday destination of aristocrats and wealthy people who built magnificent villas to enjoy the warm climate all year round. The fine climate, the peacefulness and the Mediterranean deep blue waters soon made Cannes one of the most fashionable destinations in southern Europe, whilst yachting was just a a popular pastime…

Léopold Bucquet’s arrival and his sailing onboard Alma in front of la Croisette drew attention, which spread into enthusiasm among the Cannes residents who started to build new boats like Alphonse Gioan’s Léro (1858), Eugène Tripet-Skrypitzine’s Olga, and Touriste (1859) that went on toreplace Alma, by then considered to be too slow. The Duke of Vallombrosa then commissioned Fantaisie whilst M. Turcat’s cutter Jeannette was moored in the Bay. Action was required and the local sailing gentlemen start organising racing events.

Sailing was booming in France, mid 19th century, and especially on the Côte d’Azur where yachts grew in numbers; the water being the perfect meeting point for friends wishing to liven up the sport. During the spring of 1859 Béchard, Tripet-Skrypitzone, de Colquhoum and Bucquet created the Société des Régates de Cannes and organised their first competitive event, a coastal race in the Bay with Léro, Olga, Jeannette, Touriste and other small sailing or rowing boats owned by the local fishermen all taking part.

In August 1860, a huge yachting rendez-vous was held to celebrate Napoleon III’s and to name Lord Brougham and Vaux honorary president of Société des Régates de Cannes (SRC). Year after year, foreigners would bring theirboats to the Côte d’Azur to enjoy the mild weather contribute to building up the fleet. The Duke of Vallombrosa become the club’s new president and contributed greatly to its development. The races attracted more and more big yachts: Count Gerbel’s Cutler, M. Dupont de la Thuillerie’s Queen of Island, Gleam owned by a British yachtsman and Hornet, owned by M. Moos, member of the Cowes Royal Yacht Squadron. The following year it become the renowned Yacht Club de Cannes, which moves to a building belonging to the Cercle Nautique de la Méditerranée. Te Russian empress donated a silver trophy to be awarded to the Régates winner. The event has grew to become the most attended regatta on la Croisette and in 1869 more than 50 yachts competed.

The war marks a brutal halt to the Régates andracing resumes when the Prince of Wales visits the region in 1872; the Dutch Queen offers new trophies while the 1878 edition will be remembered as one of the most spectacular. The Mistral, the wind from the North, blows so hard on March 28th that three boats capsize and one runs aground. With the death of Villombrosa, the event looses some of its glamour, only to gain it once again when the Union des Yachtsmen de Cannes moves to a floating pontoon and the following year, with the Prince of Wales as guest of honour,conquers Cannes with his exceptionally fast royal yacht Britannia. The boat is so good that Barclay Walker has Ailsa especially built to duel with the Prince, but to little success: The George Lennox Watson’s designed Britannia wins 24 races out of 32. Cannes definitely becomes one of 'the' sailing venues in Europe, where yachtsmen and aristocrats alike race. Today there are maybe few Princes and Kings but sailors still like to crowd the village and the gorgeous yachts aligning on the pontoons can undoubtedly be called Queens.

No wind, no race today
The wind was totally absent on this warm and sunny Friday in Cannes, keeping the 79 Classic Yachts and the 62 Dragons waiting in vain and the Race Committee forced to send all back to port. The overall results therefore remain unchanged and tomorrow’s racing will be decisive in producing the winners. On the provisional leaderboard after three races.

Francis van de Velde’s Oriole still has one little point over Giuseppe Giordano’s Bonafide among the under 15 metre Vintage Gaffers, Claudio Mealli’s Peter is duelling with Bernard Duc’s ElSinore and Hanns Georg Klein’s Anne-Sophie. In the under 15 metre Classic Marconi category , Bruno Puzone Bifulco skippered Chaplin has to fend off the attack by Borja Pella’s Galvana and Vittorio Cavazzana’s Emeraude. Spirit of Tradition leader, Markus Daniel’s French Kiss must watch out for the two Swiss boats, Beat Kuehni’s Choices and Robin Detraz’s Duclop. Same goes for the Classic Marconis where Florence Laffitte on Sagittarius, has to fend off Jacques Guillaume’s Astrée III. Graham Walker’s Rowdy holds a clear and health lead in the Vintage Marconi’s as does Monaco-based Alberto Miani on Tuiga inthe Big Boats.

After two races two crews are leading with a good margin in the Dragons’ series: the American Yvan Bradbury on Blue Haze who has three points on the Russian Anatoly Loginov’s Annapurna. Third is Italian Giuseppe Duca on Cloud with 10 points followed by the British entry, David Palmer (Princess Jalina) with 13 points, Olef Sorensen (Christiana) and Christian Borenius (Thouban) are tied at 17 points.

Also present last year at the Régates Royales de Cannes, the 8M ElSinore is now fighting back to Peter, the Marconi ketch owned by Claudio Mealli in the under 15 metre Vintage Marconi class. Designed by Tore Holm, an architect and boatbuilder who won no less than four Olympic medals (gold in 1920 in the 40m2 class, bronze in 1928 on a 8M, gold in 1932 in the 6M, and again bronze in 1936 in the same class) and who also designed a J Class in 1937 that never saw the light of day but that is being built to the original plans which were recently re-discovered. Bought by Bernard Duc some time ago, ElSinore at the Régates Royales de Cannes is skippered by Pierre-Alexandre Nuoffer: 'the name of the boat is linked to Shakespeare: Elsinore is an island in front of Stockholm where the Hamlet drama is set. The boat used to be owned by a Swedish yachtsman who used her both for racing and cruising. She was then destroyed, crashing on a rock, at the end of the 90s and was restored in Portugal in 2001 by a new owner, then she was sold to Duc. This year ElSinore took part inthe whole Panerai circuit, races in Portofino and Barcelona and in the8M Worlds in Hyères in mid September. She is one of the longest 8Ms together with Angelica, as Tore Holm loved slim hulls. In the beginning she was used for family cruises and was fitted with comfortable interiors and six bunks.'

ElSinore in figures

Designer: Tore Holm
Builder: Holms Yachts Varv
Material/rig: wood/sloop
Year built: 1930
Owner: Bernard Duc (Hong-Kong)
Length: 15,34 m
Waterline: 10,30 m
Beam: 2,44 m
Draft: 2,00 m
Displacement: 8 600 kg

For a living planet
The former UAP 60 footer, which originally competed in the Vendée Globe in 1989, is in Cannes with Jean-Yves Terlain flying the WWF flag for living planet. The Colombus, as it is now known is hosting some celebrities and supporters for the environmental organisation and has been following the racing on the Bay.

Limited edition
The daily Les Echos launched an initiative