Tour Voile 2000 - Sète to Bandol Offshore Race

TOUR VOILE 2000 – DAY TWENTY FOUR

Last night in Sete, the fleet of 34 Mumm 30s set off into the sunset for a 92-mile offshore race from Sete to Bandol.

The start gun was fired at 20:00 in 6 knots of easterly wind and the fleet made their way to the first mark led round by “Ville de Geneve”, with “Region Ile de France” in 4th, “Marseille 2000” in 13th. Barlo Plastics start on the starboard end of the line was late and the port end of the line paid. Little more than half way up the first beat, the British boat had a bow to bow incident with their nearest rivals “Marseille 2000”, and the French boat managed to squeeze out underneath the British boat. With Barlo Plastics pushed to the right, most of the fleet gained on the left, leaving the British boat to round the top mark in 22nd place in about 3-5 knots of breeze.

On the next leg Julian Salter, navigator on board Barlo Plastics had planned to push out to the right of the course, but they were forced to tack six or seven times back left to keep clear air before setting off on a long port tack.

As the breeze then built from 6 to 11 knots, Barlo Plastics showed great speed and managed to pull back at least 7 boats in straight line speed and then tacked over underneath another 8 boats, leaving the British boat in 8th position at this stage. The breeze had strengthened again to 14-16 necessitating a headsail change from light to medium.

As dawn broke, Barlo Plastics found themselves in contention with “Marseille 2000” and again tacked right to cover, but “Marseille 2000” themselves tacked to protect the right, which increasingly paid, leaving Barlo Plastics not only behind them but with 2 other boats in between as they rounded the island in the bay of Marseille.

With the breeze now increasing to 28 knots, the Barlo Plastics crew executed a perfect bareheaded change in a moment’s shelter under a headland to narrow the deficit by one. Trimmer on board the British boat, Simon Fry commented, “Nipper (Guy Salter) performed miracles on the bow”.

With 40 miles upwind remaining, a game of cat and mouse ensued between Barlo Plastics and “Marseille 2000”, in which the French boat covered the British boat well to finish 5th and 6th respectively. First across the line was Swiss boat “Ville de Geneve”, followed by “Region Ile de France” and “St. James”. “Easy Oars” finished in 4th place.

Simon Fry concluded, “6th was not a great result, but we’re pretty happy to only lose 2 points overall, especially as we were on our light air rig settings.”

Offshore Race – Sete to Bandol (Coefficient 2):

 1. Ville de Geneve       110
 2. Region Ile de France  104
 3. St. James             100
 4. Easy Oars              98
 5. Marseille 2000         96
 6. Barlo Plastics         94
 7. CSC Peat Marwick       92
 8. Accastillage Diffusion 90
 9. Ponts et Telecom       88
10. Nantes-St. Nazaire     86

Overall Ranking:

 1. Barlo Plastics       1158.75
 2. Marseille 2000       1114.75
 3. Region Ile de France 1090.75
 4. Easy Oars            1061.75
 5. St. James            1013.25
 6. Ville de Geneve      1011.25
 7. St. Raphael          1007.25
 8. Nantes-St. Nazaire    955
 9. Cotes d’Armor         950.25
10. Mauguio Carnon        890.25

Route of the Tour de France à la Voile 2000

Jun. 29 – Jul. 2 Dieppe             July 16 – 18  Ile de Ré - Ars en Ré
July 3 – 5       Portsmouth         July 18       La Rochelle
July 5 – 7       Cherbourg          July 18 – 21  Saint-Cyprien
July 8 – 9       Trebeurden         July 21 – 22  Sète
July 9 – 10      Perros-Guirec      July 23 – 25  Bandol
July 11 – 13     Le Crouesty-Arzon  July 25 – 26  Port Grimaud
July 13 – 14     Saint-Nazaire      July 27 – 28  Imperia
July 14 – 15     Nantes             July 29 – 31  Calvi

More Information:

• www.tourvoile.fr