2019 Tour Voile - Day 3

Cheminées Poujoulat - 2019 Tour Voile © Jean-Marie Liot / A.S.O.

Cheminées Poujoulat, the team founded by Swiss round the world racer Bernard Stamm, became the third Stade Nautique winner from three days of 2019 Tour Voile racing off Dunkirk's busy Malo Les Bains beach.

Stamm recruited a new team of young guns, headed by 24 year old five times SB20 world champion and Youth America's Cup sailor Robin Follin, and while they were seventh yesterday, today with the breeze at its strongest so far -12-15kts - Cheminées Poujoulat accelerated away from the best start of the eight boat Final and proved uncatchable.

Follin smiled, "During the first two days we may not have taken enough chances to win. Our seventh yesterday hurt a bit and so today we attacked more and we went out to win. In the Final we had the best start and then did our own thing. Antoine (Rucard) and Gaulthier (Germain) maneuvered perfectly. What a good day, we're quite getting into the Tour! "

Tour leaders Beijaflore, skippered by Valentin Bellet, gave chase and were in touch during the first circuit but they dropped two places at the last mark and landed fourth, so relinquishing two points to Cheminées Poujoulat on the General Classification.

Bellet said:

"It is a very good thing to be leading after this Dunkerque Act. We would have preferred to have a better lead because it's a shame to have lost two places on the last round in the Final. "

Oman Sail's Renaissance Services, skippered by Briton Stevie Morrison, added an excellent, hard won second today to their win of Saturday to move up to third place on the overall standings. Second for Morrison and crew - Quentin Ponroy and Abdul Rahman Al Mashari - capped a good day for the Oman Sail teams. Both of the Pro crews, Renaissance Services and the Pierre Pennec skippered EFG Private Bank of Monaco, were in today's Final and their amateur team Team Oman Sail won their first qualifying race together as an all 100% Omani crew.

Beijaflore, runners up overall in 2018, leave Dunkirk at the top of the General Classification on 144 points. Victory today moves Cheminées Pojoulat, winners of the Tour Voile Series 2019, to be two points behind with Oman's Renaissance Services six points adrift on 138pts.

Stevie Morrison summed up, "We did a good job in the final of staying clear. There was more pressure with the right turn at the top and we were quite aggressive to attack that side on the downwind and we made a place and it was dominated by the current so left upwind and left as you look downwind. We kept it very simple and focused in staying away from other boats."

He adds, "The best thing today was seeing Akram win a race. Day 1 was hard for us all. Yesterday we won the day. We had both boats in the final and the girls have been performing at a fantastic level. For Oman Sail it has been a great upwind trend."

"With just three of us on our crew it makes it easier when we are all enjoying it, but one of our strengths for sure is we quite like each other, we try and keep the mood enjoyable on the boat. We all trust each other, we know we are not infallible and make mistakes. I think the strength is we can talk about anything, no one is afraid to put their hand up and say 'I was not good enough' or 'you weren't good enough'."

Follin's Cheminées Poujoulat lead the Youth standings and French ex 470 racer Mathilde Geron and her all-girl crew on La Boulanger lead the Mixed rankings.

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