First to Honfleur, not first

An update from the Tour de France a la Voile

After a very tight finish against the race favourite Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coyc Hyères, Ville du Port Bred la Reunion finally crossed the line ahead in Honfleur, at 19.54 local time. But while Marc Guessard and his crew were first to the finish line, they don’t win the leg. The Mumm 30 from La Réunion had an individual recall after the second start this morning (under the Z + I flags). As a result they received a 20% penalty at the end of this offshore race.

Post jury, the ranking shows Ville du Port Bred la Reunion in 7th position on this last leg. Despite this penalty, the top 3 in the overall ranking remains the same, but allows Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coyc Hyères to increase their lead over Bouygues Telecom and Dieppe Seine Maritime.

Marc Guessard, skipper of Ville du Port Bred la Reunion and twice winner of the Tour de France à la Voile (1995 and 2002) commented: "We are very happy with this result. We made some good tactical decisions all though the race. In the Channel, the fight vas very tight with Toulon. Five miles before the finish they were ahead and we managed to come back slowly. 100 metres from the line, they are hoisting the spinnaker. I think this is what made the difference… The most important is to win on the water, not necessarily to get the points. We wanted to win this leg”.

Fabien Henry, skipper of Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coyc Hyères said: "we didn’t have a good start and we rounded the show mark in 29th position. Then we concentrated on the trimming and we won metre after metre. We also made some good tactical decisions between the Paluel and Antifer marks. We played with the wind and the currents. Seven miles before Antifer, we decided to move to the left and that was the perfect time for it because we were first at this mark. The Tour de France à la Voile couldn’t start better than this for us. We won three races and we are finishing second today”.