One in the net for the Southampton students

Alfa Laval wins offshore leg to Vannes in Tour Voile

After more than 18 hours racing along the South Brittany coast, the students on the naval design course at Southampton Institute crossed the finish line off Le Crouesty harbour in first position, at 14.33, almost two hours ahead the second and third boats Alpes-Maritimes Mandelieu Theoule and Bouygues Telecom.

The light winds blowing on the course forced the Race Committee to increase the time limit, but despite this decision, six boats still did not finish, including the Dutch team Van Uden Tudelft and the two Belgian teams, t service interim region de bruxelles-capitale and stad gent / ville de gand. In the overall ranking, BOUYGUES TELECOM is taking the lead over TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCHyères, 19th on the finish line. The boats will head to Vannes tonight for a coefficient 0 race in the Gulf of Morbihan.

For their third participation in the Tour de France à la Voile, the French, British and Italian students of Alfa Laval are making their dream come true. “We are so happy," said French skipper Yoann Richomme. "We knew we could have a good result. We were ready for it. But we didn’t expect to do that well. This is amazing”.

19th at the second buoy following the start in Douarnenez last night, the Southampton Institute students worked hard all night to catch up the leaders. “In the Bay of Audierne, we went offshore and managed to get some wind, while everyone else was stuck in no breeze. Perpignan was about 10 minutes behind us and in the morning, they fell in another windless patch, so we increased the gad ahead”.

At 16.16, one hour and 42 minutes after the winner, Alpes-Maritimes Mandelieu Theoule crossed the finish line in second position. According to the skipper, Sylvain Chtounder, doing well on this leg was a question of luck and stamina: “I think we managed to deal with the fatigue pretty well. In the end, we were still wide-awake and this is maybe the reason why we managed to overtake Bouygues, about 20 miles from the finish line”.

Eight minutes later, Bouygues Telecom finished third. Pierre-Loïck Berthet and his crew have now taken the lead in the overall results ahead of Toulon Provence Mediterranee Coychyères. "We've won more than 60 points off them in three days," said Berthet. "This is a new start in the race”.

Tonight, the Mumm 30 fleet will head to Vannes to race the Vannes’ Cup, on the Golfe du Morbihan. Tomorrow, for Bastille Day, the boats will stay in the harbour and the crews will be able to rest a bit more, before starting again on Friday afternoon, heading to Les Sables d’Olonne, for the next offshore leg of this 28th Tour de France à la Voile.

The Race Committee decided to cancel today’s inshore race in the Bay of Douarnenez. This decision gave the crews the opportunity to rest before heading to Vannes.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Tot
1	BOUYGUES TELECOM	Pierre Loïc BERTHET	579
2	TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE COYCHyères	Fabien HENRY	571
3	DIEPPE SEINE-MARITIME	Romain GIBON	521
4	ALPES-MARITIMES MANDELIEU THEOULE	Sylvain CHTOUNDER	508
5	VILLE DE GENEVE CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Julien DI BIASE	507
6	COURRIER DUNKERQUE	Gery TRENTESAUX	490
7	DEFI PARTAGE MARSEILLE	Thierry BOUCHARD / Dimitri DERUELLE	481
8	CSC - ESSEC	Hervé GAUTIER	472
9	REGION ILE DE FRANCE	Jimmy PAHUN / Nicolas PAUCHET	430
10	ALFA LAVAL	Yoann RICHOMME	428
11	ESPOIR ILE DE FRANCE	Jean-pierre NICOL / Victor LANIER	424
12	VILLE DU PORT BRED LA REUNION	Marc GUESSARD / Gabriel JEAN-ALBERT	393
13	PORT DE COMMERCE LA ROCHELLE	Alexandre MERCIER	379
14	BELVEDERE – EDC – EBSCO	Tanguy FOURNIER LE RAY	377
15	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	J.P.ALLILIAIRE/X.CANTEGREL/P.DENTRAYGUES/J.FALXA	370
16	PERPIGNAN MEDITERRANEE	Paul McKENZIE	361
17	COTES D'ARMOR	Michaël AVELINE	359
17	NANTES SAINT-NAZAIRE	Sebastien PETITHUGUENIN / Gaëtan AUNETTE	359
19	BIENNE – VOILE	R. HARTMANN / N. BERGER / C. KNOLL	345
20	EMINENCE – MARSEILLE	Kiny PARADE	334
21	DEFI GRANDES ECOLES TOTAL INSA	Anne Claire LE BERRE	314
22	DEFI SCLEROSE EN PLAQUES	Stéphane VENEL	303
23	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST-BRETAGNE	Gwenaël Riou	301
24	AMEC SPIE	Eric BASSET	284
25	STAD GENT / VILLE DE GAND	Philippe BERGMANS / Bernard WILMET	265
26	DEFI AMI – AVAYA - X - ENSAM	Olivier HONTANX	255
27	T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES-CAPITALE	Laurent DECLERCQ / Jean-Marc FOBERT	244
28	EIGSI – CHARENTE MARITIME	Antoine ALBARET	232
29	VAN UDEN TUDELFT	Gert VAN DER HEIJDEN / Berend-Jan EDENS	231
30	HEC GAMELIN MECENAT CHIRURGIE CARDIAQUE	Ryan PARKIN	196