New leader at the 11th hour

Offshore race lottery sees American team lose their lead in the Tour Voile

The final offshore leg of the Tour Voile proved typical of a night leg in the Mediterranean with alternating leaders, unpredictable gusts. All of this made for a long night with the fastest boats making an average of just 4 knots, the Swiss team Bienne Voile on the water for 25 hours and the latecomers 28. In these trying conditions the skipper of Groovederci, Deneen Demourkas, saw her lead melt away as the hours went by losing her lead, finally ending up third in the overall results.

“We couldn’t be more disappointed," commented Laurent Pagès. "We had some difficulty getting out of the harbour of Marseille but we made a good come back only to lose all the ground we’d made up in a right-hand shift off Cassis. From then nothing we attempted went right. We lost the Tour de France à la Voile today. It hurts, especially as I think we sailed well apart from the first leg in the Mediterranean. We’ve not had too much success recently.”

In contrast the amateur Swiss/German team Bienne Voile were all smiles, after finely negotiating the light winds to cross the finish line in first place, not the slightest bit tired after what they described as a fabulous leg.

Bouygues Telecom also did well with a third place that has propelled them once more into the overall lead with a useful 15 points lead on second placed Partage Marseille. Skipper Pierre-Loïc Berthet was relieved to be free of the pressure of this last difficult leg. “It was almost impossible to establish any kind of strategy. Each bay, each headland, each gust, was like taking on a new regatta, even if the inshore options were generally the ones that paid off apart from at the start of the leg. We gave it everything, the whole sail wardrobe went up at one time or another and we must have changed the spinnaker about 20 times during the night! On the whole, we were pretty successful with the numerous difficult passages, particularly the one between the rocks and the Ile des
Embiez! That was a good time to win points.”

Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coych also went for the pebble hopping option. “We went through there with a guy on the pulpit and another on each shroud, making two knots under genoa. It was tricky but we made great gains, maybe 15 places. That’s really what cracked it in our finishing fifth. You had to know about the area though as it’s barely a boat’s width..." said navigator Pierre-Yves Lambert.

Despite the lack of local knowledge on board Ville Du Port Bred La Reunion, Marc Guessard has added greatly to the performance of the team from the Reunion Isalnds since the Mediterranean stage. They finished second in this leg after another great performance. This was not the case for the six crews still at sea following Theoule Mandelieu the last finisher within the time limit. The rest had to finish under motor.

Elsewhere in the fleet Dieppe Seine Maritime maintained a good lead over Ville Geneve Carrefour Prevention in the amateur class and Defi Grandes Ecoles Total Insa continue to lead the students.

All that remains now are the two Olympic courses to race off St Maxime tomorrow. For Bouygues Telecom it will be a question of trying to hold onto their lead, but they are all to aware of the dangers of being the hunted rather than the hunter after their unfortunate experience in 2003. All will be revealed this time tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s departure from the quay will be at around 0945 GMT with the first start given at 1030 GMT.

Overall results

1 BOUYGUES TELECOM 1121
2 DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE 1106
3 GROOVEDERCI 1095
4 TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCH 1071
5 REGION ILE DE France 1067
6 THEOULE MANDELIEU 1034,5
7 DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME 991,5
8 VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION 963
9 COTES D'ARMOR 938
10 CSC ESSEC 906
11 VILLE DU PORT BRED ILE DE LA REUNION 902
12 DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA 794,5
13 PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE ESTUDINES.COM 775,5
14 BELVEDERE FORCE EDC LES COPAINS A BORD 764,5
15 ESPOIRS AQUITAINS 710
16 DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES 703
17 PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE 691
18 DEFI DON DU SANG ALLIBERT- HEC-ESC GRENOBLE-X 669
19 NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE 665
20 PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN 657,5
21 ALFA LAVAL 647,5
22 BIENNE VOILE 623,5
23 DOUARNENEZ VOILE MAGAZINE 607
24 TEPACAP 590,5
25 BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST BRETAGNE 563,5
26 EIGSI CHARENTE MARITIME 522,5
27 DELFT CHALLENGE 522
28 MARSEILLE UNIVERSITES VILLE DE BANDOL 510,5
29 DEFI JEAN BART 491,5
30 T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITAL 455

Amateur results
1 DIEPPE SEINE MARITIME 513
2 VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION 498
3 COTES D'ARMOR 495,5

Student results
1 DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA 528,5
2 PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE ESTUDINES.COM 518
3 DEFI DON DU SANG ALLIBERT- HEC-ESC GRENOBLE-X 483

Challenge AGF
1 GROOVEDERCI 1400
2 REGION ILE DE France 1180
3 DEFI PARTAGE 1120