Tour Voile heads offshore

A Sunday evening report from the northern French coast

After two races on Saturday off Dunkerque (one olympic course, one inshore), won by Dieppe Seine-Maritimeand Espoirs Aquitains, the Mumm 30 fleet left the most northern French port on Sunday morning at 8.00 for the first offshore race of this 29th Tour de France à la Voile, towards Dieppe. The boats are still racing and the crew have to be very concentrated to cover the last few miles in shifty conditions. At the last poll, off Calais, the Swiss team of Ville de Geneve Carrefour Preventionwas leading in front of Espoir Ile de Franceand Dieppe Seine-Maritime. But nothing is done. Before the finish, probably not before 22.00 tonight, everything can happen.

"We have to earn some points early in this TFV", said Romain Gibon, skipper of Dieppe Seine-Maritime during the official radio schedule. "We have a good position right now, but the wind is really unsteady. We are doing long gybes downwind and we have to stay concentrated on our boat speed and keep going the most constant way possible."

"We will have to sleep a bit because it could be a very long day," said Benoît Charon, skipper de Defi Basse Normandie. "There is still 65 miles to go and I don't think we are going to finish before midnight. It will depend on the tide change. After Cape Gris Nez, we might have a few tactical options. Some will go offshore, the others inshore. We will have to hold on."

"We took a pretty bad start, and now we are in the second half of the fleet... Well... actually... there is only one boat behind us" said Adrien de Belloy, tactician onboard the British-French boat Alfa Laval from Southampton Institute. "But considering these conditions, nothing is over."

In the afternoon, the wind kept shifting around, from north-east to south-east, and with a lot of strengh variations. According to the Race Comitee President, Sylvie Viant, who was at sea during the race, at 21.40, the competitors were about 10 nautical miles from the finish line and the wind dropped dramatically to leave a group of three leaders fighting downwind with only 2 or 3 knots of boat speed.

This could be a long night...

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