Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez Day 11 - Maxis under pressure
by Maguelonne Turcat 8 Oct 22:35 BST
26 September - 9 October 2020
Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez © Gilles Martin-Raget
Another summery day in Saint Tropez and with it another opportunity to enjoy what is always a rather exclusive show put on by the Maxi Yachts making headway in a moderate SSW'ly breeze, which the Race Committees were eager to make the most of to launch a course out to the edge of the bay and back.
After the windy conditions of the start of the week, today was more about the hunt for breeze and a favourable position in fleet format.
Leopard3 holds rank
The leader of the overall ranking in IRC1, the crew on the Swan 80 Umiko was keen to demonstrate the accuracy of her performance in Tuesday's muscly breeze by gaining an edge the moment the starting gun fired. For once, the crew of Leopard3, slightly ahead of itself on the line, had to do a big bear away and let the other podium contender, the sloop Kallima, slip to windward of it and onto a nice clear course to the La Moute mark. The former Atlantic record holder was quickly back up to speed though, completing the 8-mile course way ahead of the chasing pack in elapsed time and she also took the race win in corrected time. Kallima reaped the rewards of a fine start to the race by securing second place 1 minute 30 seconds ahead of Umiko at the finish.
IRC2: Onwards and upwards by Leaps & Bounds!
The 8 Maxis competing in the IRC2 group once again demonstrated dazzling coherence in a compact fleet at the start. Ryokan2 latched onto some fresh breeze at the committee boat and set the pace off the line, whilst the Polish VOR 65 Sisi took some time to find the right gear in the gentle air flow which, to the great delight of the race committees, soon filled the whole of the bay, enabling a selection of courses towards the La Moute mark. Capricorno, ex Hamilton II, the Briand design built at CNB in 2005, somewhat handicapped on Tuesday by a few technical woes, really managed to get a lick on in the light airs. Elegantly slipping along under spinnaker, ultimately she was unable to contain the return of the V-62 Mills Leaps&Bounds, the two neck and neck to get the better of Ryokan2 and pocket the race win. However, it's the Wally 80 which sits atop the provisional overall ranking this evening.
Criollos a notch higher!
Winner of the first race, Renaud Rupert's BX 60 Criollos came good again in today's light airs. Hot on her heels is the Shipman 63 Bambo, whilst the Bordeaux 60 from France's Arcachon basin, Mr Belzebuth, mirrored her performance on Tuesday to snatch third.
Today's partner: Mercantour Events
Created in 2002 by Eric Bruxelles and based in France's Var region, Mercantour Events is an event communication agency, which also manages event logistics. Boasting 25 years' experience in all, for the past 12 years it has been developing a whole new approach by combining sustainable project management communication based on entertainment. The agency has partnered Les Voiles for the past 5 years and is responsible for the creation, layout and maintenance of the Les Voiles Village. "All our skill sets can be found at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez", explains Eric Bruxelles. "The organisation, logistics as well as the decoration and dressing of the stands are down to us. Les Voiles is unquestionably our finest event, which is why we were eager to get involved as a partner. This rather special edition made it rather difficult to achieve overall coherence on a surface which has been halved. However, together with the SNST, we've managed to retain the boat spirit and the village spirit. The Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez has been truly exemplary in the way it's brought everything together to enable the event to be hosted." The success of the 2020 village also relies on a number of suppliers which are associated with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez: namely Taman Antik Saint-Tropez (Furniture space partner), Henri Blanc (Café), Montaner (Beverages) and PIB Solutions (Office automation).
Week 2: The Voiles Super Boats
- Sunday 4th and Monday 5th October: big boat registration (Wally, IRCA, Maxi yachts, big Classic, big Schooner)
- Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th, Friday 9th: big boat racing
- Friday 9th October: prize-giving (week 2)
www.lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr