Changes to Tour Voile

New Regatta Director Alain Fedensieu reveals plans for 2008 event

New Regatta Director of the Tour de France a la Voile, former competitor and victor Alain Fedensieu has revealed details of next year's event, the 31st.

Principle changes to the Tour Voile are that the next event will be more condensed - now starting on 28 June in Dunkerque and finishing in Hyeres on 24 July.

Legs of the race will be fewer, but longer, with offshore legs in the English Channel and Atlantic, with three legs of more than 180 miles. The result will be fewer host ports, these including Dieppe, Granville, Perros-Guirec, Lorient and Royan.

Meanwhile the 31st race will include more inshore racing in the Mediterranean, with transfers between host cities under motor at night. As a result there will only be one offshore leg Mediterranean between Port Barcares and Marseille. In the Med host cities for the 2008 event will be St Cyprien, Port Barcares, Marseille and Hyeres.

For the first time teams will be able to discard their worst five races instead of their worst two as has been the case in previous years.

Fedensieu is pleased to report that the 2008 event is attracting renewed international interest from foreign teams that is expected to push entries well above the usual fleet of 30 to 32 Mumm 30s. New entries are expected from Australia, Finland, Germany, Spain, Turkey and the USA.

"The 2008 edition is really condensed, with no downtime during the whole event," commented Fedensieu. "We’ve tried to reward well prepared teams by setting an intense rhythm from the start. At the beginning of the event, teams will spend almost every second night at sea, which will be very hard on the crew. Obviously the team that wins the Tour de France à la Voile 2008 will need to be incredibly strong

"The inshore racing is planned to suit the normal weather conditions. We know that wind is almost inexistent at night in the Mediterranean. For that reason we will use the evening to transfer the boats between host cities, and maximise time available for inshore racing during the day. The objective is clear, to increase the number of inshore races."