Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez

Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez - Day 5

by Maguelonne Turcat 7 Oct 2017 00:08 BST 30 September - 8 October 2017

Amidst the Mistral and a zone of high pressure, today those competing in Les Voiles benefited from one of those little weather miracles that seem to love colouring play in Saint Tropez. Indeed, in a little window between the morning's gale and the later calms, a gentle breeze enabled the three Race Committees, Wallys in Pampelonne, Modern boats offshore and the Classics in the bay, to launch the day's racing, adding another race to the scoreboard for each of the groups concerned. It was competition time again today then and the helmsmen and women and the sailors had to really be on top of their game in terms of both strategy and tactics to perform well in the capricious breeze. After the bracing wind of the start of the week, the bay of Saint Tropez was all about finesse and feeling at the helm this Friday.

The Finals in prospect...

From the sound of canon fire to bagpipes to sea shanties... each day the return to the dock of all the sailors competing in Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez is punctuated by these good-humoured demonstrations, reinforced by the joy at having shared another wonderful day's sailing and racing. Skilfully inserted into the programme around the Mistral by the Race Committees, the different leader boards are shaping up nicely. The rivalry among the 12 m JIs in Saint Tropez is epitomised by the duel between Sovereign and France. Baron Bich's cherished 12 m JI triumphed today and remains in the hunt for final victory tomorrow, Sovereign currently with the edge.

Always a top-flight competition, the 14 sumptuous Wallys racing over towards Pampelonne opted today for a short course, hugging the coast. Open Season, the Wally 107, just managed to secure the bullet in elapsed time, but slipped down to third place in corrected time, to the benefit of Lyra, a Wally 77, and above all Magic Carpet3, which posted a stellar result today, drawing level with Open Season in the provisional overall ranking. As such, tomorrow will once again prove decisive in the bid for final victory and the BMW Trophy. Lyra is now lying in third place.

Suspense reigns among the 15 M JIs this evening in the battle for the Rolex Trophy. Mariska managed to control The Lady Anne, which is formidable the moment the wind drops below 10 knots as it did today. The 1908 Fife won this Friday's race, definitively stamping her authority on the 2017 edition of Les Voiles.

A 'Guest' Class

Reconciling 130 years of yachting at the same event requires both imagination and rigour from the organisers of Les Voiles. This rigour is expressed in the classification of yachts that are as similar as possible, in order to guarantee a degree of sporting equity on the water. Inevitably, this isn't the easiest of tasks when naval architects the world over have, for the past century and a half, tried to outdo each other's creative talent to design the fastest yachts of their time. Between the Epoques, Marconi rigs, gaff rigs and Spirit of Traditions, certain iconic yachts sadly no longer fall within the rule laid out in Les Voiles' Notice of Race, which solely authorises the participation of those classic yachts measuring in excess of 11 metres. As such, in order to honour the presence of masterpieces as sublime as Dainty (Wesmacott 1922) and her 8.12 metres of grace and elegance, Alcyon, the beautiful 9.38m gunter rig or Djinn, the 8.90m gaff cutter, a specially named "Invité" or "Guest" ranking has been instituted at Les Voiles and this year groups together 9 splendid craft.

The fuse on gaff cutters

On gaff cutters and schooners, above the lower mast, or main mast, comes the topmast, which carries the topsail, namely the sail that sits over the top of the fore-and-aft mainsail. This relatively light wooden spar, also serves as a fuse in the event of excessive pressure, which can lead to a dismasting. Just such an incident has unfortunately occurred several times this week at Les Voiles, the scale and the technical and human consequences of which have been greatly reduced by the breakage of this top mast. Though subsequently proving to be a little bit of a handicap while racing, it has of course served its purpose by preventing the mast from falling. Happily, secured at the top of the mast by ropes, this broken spar on various competitors' boats has led to no collateral damage at Les Voiles.

The face of Les Voiles

Playing host to no fewer than 4,000 sailors for 10 days and registering some 300 boats is a feat that the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez pulls off in style each and every year to ensure the success of Les Voiles. The teams of André Beaufils, entrusted to Frédérique Fantino on this occasion, work well in advance of the main event registering the countless requests to participate from all over the world. "In Saint Tropez, each request is a case," she explains, "which requires special and continuous attention in order to satisfy the owners' demands as best we can." These requests are naturally studied in meticulous detail according to their specific features, the type of yacht, Modern or Classic, the demands made by the skipper-owners and so on... before confirmation is given. Berths in the port are also the subject of hot debate, everyone obviously wanting to be at the heart of the little port in France's Var region. Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, in contrast to other regattas, authorises daily modifications to the crews, the number of sailors being 'chartered' by their owners, who are keen to enable the magic of the moment to be shared by their clients and friends. As such, the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez puts in place a team of at least ten people in the village who, each day, are in charge of recording the new crew entries aboard each of the different boats. A long, painstaking, full-time job for these wonderful ladies at reception.