Tour de France à la Voile - The Med belongs to the meds

by Tour de France à la Voile on 21 Jul 2010 Tour de France à la Voile update.

Marseille is not that far from Port-Camargue, just 65 milles away. But the crossing may be difficult for you have to sail all around the Rhone delta, called the Camargue where the sand banks stretched far away from the shore.

The place might be very windy because of the well known mistral wind. But it was not to be. The boats started with five light knots of wind but then had a rather consistent 12 knots breeze, just a perfect wind for a night’s sail in the heat of summer.

You just have to keep an eye on the currents, the fishing vessels and their nearly invisible nets and the maritime traffic from the oil tanker terminal of Fos-sur-Mer. That is to say nothing of your opponents. Ideal conditions doesn’t mean there is no race, rather the reverse for everyone had a chance.

But the Med is really something special : the first boat to cross the finish line was, once more, the boat from Hyeres, TPM Coych. The team skipped by Fabien Henry is the strong one since the boats arrived in the latin mare ‘nostrum’. So we have the feeling they will stay in the top three till the end. Can they go and get to the second?

Hard to believe for the best boat are rather consistent. This morning the leader of the student ranking, Team SOG Safran, were second on the line and are clearly holding on their leading position. Groovederci did a very good race, making a four.

The american boat is now five overall, just three points in front of Oman sail’s Renaissance. It will for sure be hard sport until the end with these two English speaking teams.

Another battle is raging in the amateur section. The Dutch boat Mummaduck is now very close to the Swiss Ville de Genève – Carrefour Prévention and Purflo Les Thermes Marin Saint-Malo is just behind. Even though Ville de Genève claimed to be at ease in the light winds of the med, everything can happen.

For now, the boats are moored in the heart of the city and the crew can have some rest. Next race tomorrow; some in-shores are scheduled.

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

For more information, please go to: www.tourvoile.fr