Change of plan

With strong headwinds forecast the Tour de France a la Voile have to make re-arrangements

Only one race was sailed this afternoon off Dieppe. With a wind between 25 and 30 knots and some heavy showers the teams competed in tough conditions. In order to facilitate the crossing of the Raz Blanchard the race organisation has decided to stop tomorrow night in Cherbourg.

The team of Ville du Port – La Réunion (Jean-Albert Gabriel ) had a good race today. “We like to sail in the breeze when it gets speedy,” said Gabriel. "We often have these conditions at home. We did a very good start and made an interesting move downwind on the right of the course. We surfed the waves and quickly increased the gap”. The team ended up 13th overall but is still aware of the fact that “every race is another fresh page”.

It was also a very nice recovery for Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCHyères, which finished second after a bad start. “We ended the leg with a very good tactical choice: we gybed at the right moment under a cloud, and it paid off," said helmsman, Tugdual Becquemie.

The boat Manche Basse-Normandie (Benoît Charon, Nicolas Jossier) missed the podium only 3 seconds after Courrier Dunkerque (Daniel Souben). For the next stop of the race in Basse-Normandie the crew will have to be very careful: “it is never easy to pass home, it’s a very big psychological pressure. So we’re just going to forget about where we are and try to do our best”.

Ile de France (Victor Lanier, Nicolas Pauchet) followed by Tahiti et ses Iles (Teva Plichart) and Manche Basse-Normandie lead the overall ranking, despite bad results today. Saint-Malo Purflo Team SNBSM (François Lebourdais, Pierre Hingant) will tomorrow be sailing with the blue 'Honda Civic Hybrid' spinnaker of the leader in the amateur class. Caisse d’Epargne – HEC – Ecole Navale (Hervé Gautier) keeps the lead in the student division. Good news for EIGSI – Charente Maritime – dismasted yesterday, they are now back in the race and will be sailing tomorrow morning.

The Mumm 30s will start the second offshore leg of the Tour de France Sailing Race tomorrow. Instead of sailing directly to Granville. President of the Race Committee, Sylvie Viant, prefers to make a stop halfway for safety reasons. “We took this decision along with the Race Director Christine Briand because of the bad weather. There will be a strong wind blowing from the southwest, occasionally up to force 7 or 8. Were we to follow the original plans, the Mumm 30s would cross the Raz Blanchard in very dangerous sea conditions, as the wind would be facing the current. So the boats will stop tomorrow at the headland of the Cotentin”.

The race will start at 6am tomorrow, for a 99 nautical mile-long offshore leg in bay of Seine.