Tour Voile Day 9: Beijaflore spoil the Bastille Day party in Baden

2018 Tour Voile - Day 9 © Jean-Marie Liot / A.S.O

Beijaflore bounced back in Baden, South Brittany returning from a disappointing Act 3 in Barneville-Carteret to spoil any thoughts of a Bastille Day victory party for the local teams Lorina Limonade and Lorina Mojito when they won today's light winds Coastal Race on a tranquil, beautiful Golfe du Morbihan.

Beijaflore, sailed today by Valentin Bellet, Guillaume Pirouelle and Julien Villion, clawed their way up the fleet after a poor start, 23rd of 26 early on, to win on the very same home sailing waters where the Lorina Limonade and Mojito-Golfe du Morbihan teams were dreamt up.

The stage was set for a dream scenario for the home Golfe du Morbihan teams who had both conclusively overshadowed Beijaflore during Thursday and Friday's Act 3, culminating in the 'Limonadiers' stealing the leaders blue kite on cue for the Tour's visit to their home waters.

But today, when the finish line was set almost within sight of the Larmor Baden cataschool where the Lorina teams come from, it was neither Limonade nor Mojito – winners of the last coastal race, but Beijaflore which took first gun off Baden to conclude a beautiful summer's day on the picture postcard waters which delivered everything but wind today to this increasingly tense 41st Tour Voile.

With Beijaflore winning and Quentin Delapierre's Team Lorina Limonade-Golfe du Morbihan in eighth today, it is Beijaflore who are back on top of the overall Tour standings with a margin of four points going in to Sunday's Stadium Nautique race. The team lead by Valentin Bellet suffered a blip in Barneville-Carteret, tenth in the Coastal Race and fifth in the Stadium Final, but now have victories in four key races from eight starts.

Beijaflore skipper Bellet summed up their day, "A lot happened today. The start was complicated we made some bad choices and our speed was not good. That was very hard on board mentally, but we stayed in good humour and just concentrated. And when our rivals in front of us opened a door of opportunity we took it. Our choice then allowed us to pull back a lot. And once again Guillaume and I were impressed as we stuck to the option of Julien's and that was our success."

Keeping the big spectator crowds on the shore entertained Bernard Stamm and the crew on Cheminées Poujoulat stole second in a photo finish with the Les Sables d'Olonne team of Benjamin Dutreux and Thomas Cardrin on Team OCEWOOD.FR-Les Sables d'Olonne losing out for third. But it is the first podium this Tour for the young Sablais skipper who also campaigns in the Figaro class.

Stevie Morrison, Thierry Douillard and Abdul Rahman on #sailingarabia returned a solid fifth, always in the match and at times up to second on the water. Their key gain today is pulling back points on Team Lorina Mojito who were 13th today and so returning #sailingarabia to third on the overall podium. It was a good day for the Swiss teams as Cheminées Poujoulat's second is their best finish of their Tour so far halting a slide down the standings, while CER 2 Genève also had their best day yet in fourth.

The start of this third Coastal Race of the Tour had to be postponed by two hours as there was scarcely more than a few knots of very patchy breeze. The fleet of 26 Diam 24 OD's had to be towed out towards more open water in search of the incoming SSW'ly sea breeze. But once again there was nothing simple or straightforward on this Coastal Race course. With the battles between the breeze and the cross currents, laylines were not easy to judge and once more the leaders flagged up any problems for their pursuers.

The Golfe du Morbihan will see its own showdown Sunday when the Stadium Nautique resumes.

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