Tour de France a la Voile - Race win for American Groovederci team

by Tour de France à la Voile on 15 Jul 2010 Tour de France à la Voile update.

What suspense ! Strong tides and lack of wind made the outcome of the last offshore race in the Atlantic quite hard to predict.

Who ever said that the art of sailing was like the art of war was right - the winner is the first to adapt to any changes that may occur. You had to be one of these warriors to get a good result in Royan.

First the fleet had to leave the Vendée port of Talmont before at night and not later because of a bad weather forecast. And then, after the boats sailed around the islands of Ré and Oleron, everybody expected an arrival just before the dawn. It was not to be. The wind died as the tide was slowly bringing the fleet to the finish line. The ETA which was 5 am then changed to 7 am and in the end, the first boat arrived at 8 o’clock. You had to have iron nerves to keep your concentration. At 7.00 am, the victory was likely going to Courrier Dunkerque.

But at eight the winner was Groovederci. A great result for the American team led by Deneen Demourkas. The skipper always wanted to fight for the first place. This result owes nothing to luck but to the dedication of a strong crew assisted by some top French navigators.

'Our start was not so good' explains Deneen Demourkas ;but we succeeded to be in a good position at the top mark and then we gained, boat after boat. By the end of the night we were in front of the fleet fighting with Courrier Dunkerque and Oman Sail’s Renaissance. Sometimes it was us, sometimes it was them - the final result might have been different had the race been stopped before entering the bay.'

Sailing with no wind is something you want to avoid even though Groovederci made the best of it. It is the first time the American team has succeeded in an offshore race. The second boat to cross the line was Courrier Dunkerque, not a surprise. The very solid team from Dunkirk was at ease on the long distance race. They are closing the gap on the series leader Nouvelle Caledonie, who finished tenth.

A student boat was third across the line. Team SOG Safran had a brilliant start in Dunkirk and then had some poor results in Britany but is back again now with the help of Antoine Koch, a French singlehanded specialist.

The Farr 30, Oman sail’s Renaissance skippered by Rob Greenhalgh was fourth. The boat from Oman is making a success of it’s French campaign, sailing at the top level with a team including Omani sailors. Well done guys !

Ile de France, who finished seventh, takes advantage of the poor result of TPM Coych to come back into the top three. These two boats are swapping places every day, so we will have to wait till the end of the series to know who will take the bronze medal.

Results of the day / Leg Talmont Saint Hilaire - Royan:
1 Groovederci (Deneen Demourkas)
2 Courrier Dunkerque (Daniel Souben)
3 Team SOG - SAFRAN (Julien Villion / Quentin Ponroy)
4 Oman Sail's Renaissance (Rob Greenhalgh)
5 Purflo Les Thermes Marins - St Malo (François Lebourdais / Pierre Hingant / Quentin Grueau)
6 Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention (Jérôme Clerc / Bruno Barbarin)
7 Ile de France (Jimmy Pahun / Vincent Aillaud)
8 Côtes d'Armor (Stéphane Letertre)
9 Manche Basse Normandie (Benoit Charon)
10 Nouvelle Calédonie (Bertrand Pacé / Vincent Portugal)
11 TU Delft (Bert Schandevyl)
12 CSC - HEC - Ecole Navale (Hervé Gautier)
13 Ville du Port - Région Réunion (Thomas Terte / Thomas Pasquier / Noé Delpech)
14 Normale Sup Lagardère (Eric Brezellec)
15 ESSEC – Hanploi (Damien Seguin)
16 Brest Grandes Ecoles - ENSIETA - ESCB - ISEN (Tangi Mahé)
17 Mummaduck (Laurent Pagès)
18 Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCH (Fabien Henry)
19 Port de plaisance de Roscoff - CCI de Morlaix (Julien Berthélémé / François Liron)
20 Bienne Voile - SRS I (Stefan Seger)
21 BRUNEL (Peter Jan Postma / Bart Verwerft)
22 Bred (Eric Drouglazet / Christophe Bouvet)
23 Bienne Voile - SRS II (Lorenz Muller)
24 Nantes - Saint Nazaire (Jean Queveau)
25 INSA SOPRA TSP TEM (Thomas Rahier / Nicolas Andrieu)
26 Région de Bruxelles Capitale Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (Cyril Michel / Laurent Declercq)
27 Arts et Métiers - Centrale Paris Défi SEP (Clément Hochart)
DNS SUPELEC (François Isopet / Pierre Joly)

Overall results before jury:

1 Nouvelle Calédonie (Bertrand Pacé / Vincent Portugal) 67 pts
2 Courrier Dunkerque (Daniel Souben) 91 pts
3 Ile de France (Jimmy Pahun / Vincent Aillaud) 137 pts
4 Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCH (Fabien Henry) 147 pts
5 Groovederci (Deneen Demourkas) 158 pts
6 Oman Sail's Renaissance (Rob Greenhalgh) 162 pts
7 Manche Basse Normandie (Benoit Charon) 185,2 pts
8 Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention (Jérôme Clerc / Bruno Barbarin) 213 pts
9 CSC - HEC - Ecole Navale (Hervé Gautier) 221 pts
10 Purflo Les Thermes Marins - St Malo (François Lebourdais / Pierre Hingant / Quentin Grueau) 230 pts
11 Team SOG - SAFRAN (Julien Villion / Quentin Ponroy) 257 pts
12 Mummaduck (Laurent Pagès) 258 pts
13 Normale Sup Lagardère (Eric Brezellec) 289 pts
14 Côtes d'Armor (Stéphane Letertre) 320 pts
15 TU Delft (Bert Schandevyl) 342 pts
16 Brest Grandes Ecoles - ENSIETA - ESCB - ISEN (Tangi Mahé) 345 pts
17 Ville du Port - Région Réunion (Thomas Terte / Thomas Pasquier / Noé Delpech) 351 pts
18 INSA SOPRA TSP TEM (Thomas Rahier / Nicolas Andrieu) 385 pts
19 Bred (Eric Drouglazet / Christophe Bouvet) 391,4 pts
20 Bienne Voile - SRS II (Lorenz Muller) 400 pts
21 Port de plaisance de Roscoff - CCI de Morlaix (Julien Berthélémé / François Liron) 402 pts
22 Nantes - Saint Nazaire (Jean Queveau) 424 pts
23 Bienne Voile - SRS I (Stefan Seger) 442 pts
24 BRUNEL (Peter Jan Postma / Bart Verwerft) 449 pts
25 ESSEC – Hanploi (Damien Seguin) 462 pts
26 Région de Bruxelles Capitale Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (Cyril Michel / Laurent Declercq) 547 pts
27 Arts et Métiers - Centrale Paris Défi SEP (Clément Hochart) 575 pts
28 SUPELEC (François Isopet / Pierre Joly) 665 pts

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