Big breeze in the Med

Tour Voile competitors fight with the conditions

There was an initial delay in proceedings as the Race Committee ordered the fleet of 29 Mumm 30s to wait until the conditions outside the port were navigable due to the lively conditions.

Eventually after the race had got underway it was Region Ile de France who took victory from a whole host of pros who should have been much more at ease in the strong winds. CSC Essec also came out well to take fourth.

Bouygues Telecom pulled off a second place ahead of Defi Partage Marseille while Toulon Provence Mediterrannee Coych took fifth place ahead of Theoule Mandelieu.

With slightly less wind in the second race the fleet set off on a slightly shorter course than planned. This time Groovederci went off on a flyer to lead the race, hanging onto her lead overall ahead of Toulon Provence Mediterrannee Coych, also appearing very comfortable in the breeze.

Skipper of Groovederci, American Deneen Demourkas left the helm to Laurent Pagès today and was positively glowing. "Crazy, just crazy! We go really well upwind in these conditions - a bit higher makes for a bit faster. Under spinnaker the speeds are similar but you have to manoeuvre well in these conditions, if the spinnaker doesn’t blow up first! We only just managed to get a new one for the second race."

Behind them the amateurs and students managed to concentrate on their own game
plan but only Ville Du Port Bred La Reunion managed to score particularly
highly with a third, holding off Bouygues Telecom who made a great comeback after
a shocker 14th place in the first race. They finished the day 4th overall. "It was great! We sailed a blinder," commented Thierry Douillard on Bouygues Telecom. “Benjamin
Bonneau did an incredible job. There were some violent gusts of wind and he really had to know how to play them. He placed the boat in the perfect position on the chessboard, especially for the comeback in the second race."

Jimmy Pahun on Region Ile de France could not repeat yesterday's victory despite a good upwind leg at the start. “We dropped back to 25th on the downwind leg. It was hard to come back again from so far down. It’s infuriating to lose the points we’d gained just an hour earlier but it was purely our own fault.”

The special weather warning which is currently in progress should be over by tomorrow morning but the wind will remain strong across the Camargue and the Gulf of Fos as far as Marseille.

For this reason, the start of the leg from Gruissan to Marseille has been moved ahead from 1200 GMT to 0900 GMT so as to sail in as much daylight as possible in the strong winds.

Overall

Pos	Boat	Skiper	Pnts
1	GROOVEDERCI	Deneen B. Demourkas/Laurent Pages	976
2	BOUYGUES TELECOM	Pierre Loïc Berthet	952
3	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	Thierry Bouchard/Dimitri Deruelle	942
4	REGION ILE DE France	Jimmy Pahun/Nicolas Pauchet	927
5	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH	P.L.Garnero/F.Henry	923
6	THEOULE MANDELIEU	Sylvain Chtounder	905,5
7	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Julien di Biase/Denis Girardet	832
8	DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME	Romain Gibon	824,5
9	CSC ESSEC	Hervé Gautier	803
10	COTES D'ARMOR	Vincent Biarnes	797
11	VILLE DU PORT BRED ILE DE LA REUNION	Jean Albert Gabriel/M.Guessard	722
12	DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA	Florent Gaggero	674,5
13	BELVEDERE FORCE EDC LES COPAINS A BORD	Vincent Portugal	663,5
14	PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE ESTUDINES.COM	Pierre François Le Poutre	639,5
15	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul Mc Kenzie	605
16	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane Venel	595
17	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	Xavier Cantegrel/Pascale Dentraygue	588
18	NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE	S.Petithuguenin	576
19	PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN	Eric Blouet	575,5
20	DEFI DON DU SANG ALLIBERT- HEC-ESC GRENOBLE-X	Philippe Legros	563
21	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann Richomme/Antoine Cardin	542,5
22	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST BRETAGNE	N. Audigane/T. Mahé/M. Riou/C.Pratt	538,5
23	DOUARNENEZ VOILE MAGAZINE	Loïc Le Garrec	526
24	TEPACAP	J.Grégoire/A.Pallu de la Barrière	511,5
25	BIENNE VOILE	R.Hartmann	494,5
26	DELFT CHALLENGE	Ko Stroo	446
27	DEFI JEAN BART	G.Delacroix/T.Ruyant	430,5
28	MARSEILLE UNIVERSITES VILLE DE BANDOL	J.F. chevalier/S.Guignard	411,5
29	T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITAL	J.M.Fobert/L.Declercq	411
30	EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME	Antoine Albaret	397,5