La Rochelle bound

Tour Voile fleet on final Atlantic leg

The Tour Voile fleet got off to a clean start for once, in a light westerly wind, on the final Atlantic offshore leg bound for for La Rochelle. This morning, in an attempt to avoid a simple drag race, the Race Committee modified the course to make it more tactical, and alternate the points of sail between close-hauled and reaching.

As a result numerous course marks were dotted along the way, down the side of the island of Oléron, between ile d’Aix and Fort Boyard before climbing back up to take in some marks off La Rochelle and the finish line in front of the entrance to the port.

This morning Jean-Pierre Dick, navigator on Region Ile de France, was pleased with the course modifications: “This change in course makes things more interesting. Anything
can happen between each mark. It’s going to be tactical." The crew will have to work hard to make up ground lost at the start. The boat was positioned 24th at the mark close to the shore off Port Bourgenay.

Pierre-François Lepoutre, the young skipper on Port de Commerce La Rochelle Estudines.Com, highly motivated about rallying his home port, got off to an excellent start. Supported by Christine Briand he was in eighth position as he made off towards the Charente Maritime region finish. "At least we won’t have to hunt down the mark. We sail more confidently in an area that we know, that’s for sure," he
commented.

It was Cotes D’Armor however, who lead off the start. A welcome change to the rather poor performance they have been put in over recent legs.

Behind them Defi Partage Marseille is currently leading Theoule Mandelieu, Toulon Provence Mediterranee and Groovederci. Neck and neck are Theoule Mandelieu and Groovederci, the two leaders in the rankings, both were penalised for rounding the inshore mark incorrectly losing them places. Bouygues Telecom, finished 17th in the last race but third in the overall results, will have to pull out all the stops to get back in contention.

Meanwhile CSC ESSEC set off in the leading group, first amateur boat, while the top two in this class, Dieppe Maritime and Ville de Geneve Carrefour Prevention, winner of the third race yesterday, were struggling at the end of the fleet at the time of writing.


Positions

1 GROOVEDERCI 539,5
2 THEOULE MANDELIEU 523
3 BOUYGUES TELECOM 518
4 REGION ILE DE France 512,5
5 DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE 494,5
6 TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH 493,5
7 VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION 475,5
8 DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME 464,5
9 CSC ESSEC 430,5
10 BELVEDERE FORCE EDC LES COPAINS A BORD 405,5
11 COTES D'ARMOR 372
12 DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA 360,5
13 PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN 349,5
14 VILLE DU PORT BRED ILE DE LA REUNION 343
15 PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE 328,5
16 DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES 327,5
17 PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE ESTUDINES.COM 315,5
18 DEFI DON DU SANG ALLIBERT- HEC-ESC GRENOBLE-X 314,5
19 NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE 305
20 DOUARNENEZ VOILE MAGAZINE 297
21 ESPOIRS AQUITAINS 296,5
22 BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST BRETAGNE 277
23 BIENNE VOILE 272
24 ALFA LAVAL 265
25 TEPACAP 250,5
26 EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME 233,5
27 MARSEILLE UNIVERSITES VILLE DE BANDOL 231
28 T Service Interim Région de Bruxelles Capitale 218
29 DEFI JEAN BART 204,5
30 DELFT CHALLENGE 200,5