In the bag for Tour veterans

Tour de France a la Voile winds up

The south and France boat Capsport, skippered Xavier Lecoeur and Bernard Mallaret, easily won the Tour de France à la Voile 2003. The winning boat scored 47.25 points more than the second overall, Jimmy Pahun’s Région Ile de France. Julien Farnarier’s Ville d’Antibes NEC ended up at the third while defending champions Bouygues Telecom must console themselves with the satisfaction of having won the last point-scoring race today in Antibes ahead of Italy’s Joe Fly Sailing Team whose learning curve has taken a steep turn in the last few days.

As expected, the Aussies of Southern Sun Team Australie finished in 10th. Hervé Gautier’s CSC Essec boat won the amateur division while Bruno Barbarin's INSA won the student division.

Four boats have been dominating this 26th Tour de France à la Voile. Winning boat Capsport had started this month long- regatta very well as she snatched victory not only in the non-point scoring prologue but also in the first two inshore races. Xavier Lecoeur’s team managed to stay at the top of the leader board for six days before to drop down to fourth place overall. Three other boats have been in fighting for final victory from the very beginning: Jimmy Pahun’s Région Ile de France, Julien Farnarier’s Ville d’Antibes NEC and Pierre Loïc Berthet’s Bouygues Telecom.

The latter were standing in first place overall with a good 42.5 points lead at the end of the Atlantic section of the course. But the Nantes team did not seem to be able to keep their momentum in the Med allowing Capsport bounce back in the Med.

In Sète the southern boat, then skippered by three times Tour Voile winner Bernard Mallaret, managed to come back into first place overall. "They won the Tour de France à la Voile in Sète," confirmed Jimmy Pahun a couple of days ago as he did not believe then that he could still win this event. However, the Breton skipper, who was participating in the Tour de France à la Voile for the 19th time, is very happy with his second place knowing that, unlike the previous years, he had a team made of young and un-experienced sailors.

Where Bouygues Telecom is the team that won most races, Capsport have been more consistent. Lack of consistency has also penalised Région Ile de France and Ville d’Antibes NEC.

Though they were considered as one of the favourites, the Italians have also failed in being consistent and therefore ended up seventh overall. Federico Michetti and his most talented team among which were Vasco Vascotto, Luca Santella, Flavio Favini and America’s Morgan Larson have learned a lot about what it takes to win the Tour de France à la Voile, an endurance event. Like the Aussies, the Italians expected stronger breeze and had designed their sails with this in mind.

Melbourne’s Kirwan Robb and Mike Smith on board Southern Sun Team Australie have reached their goal, which was to finish in the top ten. However, the Aussies were hoping to manage to climb one or more two steps on the leader board. They want to come back next year and take their revenge.

"Our strength was to often change crew - to permanently have fresh blood on board our boat," commented Xavier Lecoeur, skipper of winning boat. "We also made sure we had the right people at the right place. I sailed in the Channel and in the Atlantic as, coming from Normandy, I know those areas better while Bernard Mallaret and François Brénac sailed in the Med, where they’re from. Dimitri Deruelle and Damien Iehl, who had been sailing for a while in the Atlantic came back for the last three days. Then there was the precious help of Kito de Pavant (winner of the Solitaire du Figaro in 2002) who was our navigator during the first half of the regatta."

Jimmy Pahun, skipper of Région Ile de France gave his final feeling on this year's event. "We had a great Tour de France à la Voile. It had been a long time since I've experienced such a nice regatta. I’m very happy with my young crew. We lacked some experience but had many talented sailors. First place is not always necessary - the most important is to finish being proud of your crew and with the impression that you did a good job. It’s a victory."

Federico Michetti, skipper of Joe Fly Sailing Team commented: "I’m a little bit sad because the Tour de France à la Voile is finished. I’m not disappointed. I’m happy. A little bit tired, because we pushed a lot to try to come back a little bit every day. The end has been stressful, but it’s been a great experience. We learnt a lot. We now know what is good to do and what is not good to do. We understand how it works and it’s important for next year. It’s been a great."

Kirwan Robb, co- skipper of Southern Sun Team Australie said "I’m slightly disappointed as I finished in 10th last year with Force EDC and I finish in 10th again. But it was our goal in the top ten and we did it so it’s good especially considering that most of the teams had never sailed offshore. It’s been a light air event and we would have preferred some heavier breeze. But we’ve learnt a lot. We did not have enough practice at fleet racing and starts because we were the only Mumm 30 in Victoria so before we came here, we had never sailed against a Mumm 30 before."

Results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Points
1	CAP SPORT	Bernard Mallaret  / Xavier Lecoeur	1831,25
2	REGION ILE DE France	Jimmy Pahun	1784
3	VILLE D'ANTIBES NEC	Marc Bouvet / Julien Farnarier	1775
4	BOUYGUES TELECOM	Pierre Loïc Berthet	1729,5
5	DEFI PARTAGE	Thierry Bouchard/Maxime Paul	1668,25
6	TOULON-PROVENCE-MEDITERRANEE-COYCH	Pierre Laurent Garnero/Fabien Henry	1656,75
7	JOE FLY SAILING TEAM	Federico Michetti	1643
8	THEOULE MANDELIEU-MBH	Sylvain Chtounder	1566,75
9	VILLE DE GENEVE-CARREFOUR PREVENTION	Julien Dibiase Etienne David	1552,75
10	SOUTHERN SUN-TEAM AUSTRALIE	Michael Smith kirwann Robb	1499,5
11	DIEPPE SEINE-MARITIME	Jean Rodelato	1446
12	COTES D'ARMOR	Vincent Biarnes	1421,25
13	CSC ESSEC	Hervé Gautier	1355,75
14	INSA	Bruno Barbarin	1329
15	ESTUDINES.COM PORT DE COMMERCE	Pierre François Le Poutre	1309
16	VILLE DE DOUARNENEZ-ARMOR LUX	Loic Le Garrec	1296,25
17	CODIAM - ENSP -dh	JeanClaude Nicoleau / Nicolas Loday	1280
18	MITSUBISHI MECENAT CHIRURGIE CARDIAQUE-ESCP EAP	Jean Charles Scale	1279,75
19	DEFI TOTAL GRANDES ECOLES ENSAM ESSEC	David Abrard	1275
20	BREST GRANDES ECOLES ENSIETA ENST BRETAGNE	Tangui Mahe	1268,5
21	MER & MAISON-BERMUDES CENTRALE PARIS	Ferdinand Rey	1262,25
22	THALES	Eric Renault	1243,25
23	ACCENTURE	Franck Munier/Francois Dore	1199,25
24	SAINT PAUL- ILE DE LA REUNION	Gabriel Jean-Albert	1189,25
25	TEPACAP	Alexandre Pallu de La Barriere/ Philippe Boudgourd	1176
26	DEFI SEP-LEONARD DE VINCI- ESTACA	Stéphane Venel	1162,25
27	BELVEDERE-MARTINIQUE-LES COPAINS A BORD	Eric Basset	1158,5
28	PSA-PEUGEOT CITROEN PSA-PEUGEOT CITROEN	Eric Blouet	1151,75
29	REGION ARCHIPELGUADELOUPE	Claude Thellier	1114,75
30	BIENNE VOILE	Lorenz  Müller/Peter Luzius	1109,25
31	L'ENFANT@L'HOPITAL X-HEC	Jean Marie Gout/Philippe Legros	1100
32	SOUTHAMPTON INSTITUTE-ALPHA LAVAL	Yoann Richome Antoine Cardin	1090
33	ESPOIRS AQUITAINS	Xavier Cantegrel	1085,5
34	DEFI JEAN BART	Guillaume Delacroix	998,75
35	T SERVICE INTERIM REGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITALE	Jean Marc Fobert / Laurent Declercq	965
36	NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE	Adrien De Belloy	959,75
37	ENTPE ENSAE ENSC SECURITE ROUTIERE	Erik Ferran	822,25